Undermining privacy creates self-censorship, eliminates democracy
“Overwhelming” data mining by NSA would lead to self-censorship, which goes against the principles of democracy, Annie Machon, a former MI-5 intelligence officer, told RT, praising Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff for her criticism of US spy activities.
Speaking at the opening day of the UN General Assembly, Brazil’s
President, Dilma Rousseff, has slammed the US for “violating
human rights” and “international law” in view of the
global cyber surveillance scandal and revelations the NSA tapped
into her personal communications.
Rousseff proposed an international framework for governing the
internet, promising that Brazil would adopt its own legislation
and technology to protect it from illegal interception of
communications.
The US president, who appeared on stage immediately after
Rousseff, chose not to address the Brazilian criticism at all,
only saying that America has now begun to review the way it
gathers intelligence “so as to properly balance the
legitimate security concerns of our citizens and allies, with the
privacy concerns that all people share.”
Brazil’s push for independent internet infrastructure will offer
an opportunity for online privacy by allowing its users to avoid
US tech giants, Annie Machon, a former MI-5 intelligence officer
turned whistleblower, told RT.
RT:Rousseff attacked the spying activities, calling
them a breach of international law. As someone who's no stranger
to intelligence work, what's your take on that comment?
Annie Machon: I’m really happy to see a national leader
make such robust attack against the illegal activities of the
NSA. And also such robust defense about what constitutes
democracy where we do need privacy in order to have freedom of
thought and freedom of expression – in order to freely
communicate. And as long as we can no longer trust the media, by
which we make those communications or read that information, then
we start to self-sensor. It’s a very dangerous path for democracy
to go down. I thought she [Rousseff] incorporated a lot of very
useful points in her talk. And the fact that Brazil is now
looking at potentially building a new sort of internet
infrastructure, which bypasses the bugged and the spied-on
American infrastructure -- I think it’s a very positive step
forward.
RT:Brazil's president stressed that the rights and
security of some can't be ensured by violating the rights of
others. Can a balance between the two ever be found?
AM: I thought Obama’s response to her speech, which was
quite a dismissive one-liner about the fact that you’ve got to
balance America’s security with the rest of the peoples of the
world was quite equivocating. It would be nice to have seen him
put up a more robust defense for democracy too. Sure there had to
be a balance, but it has to be proportionate in any democratic
society. And overwhelming and endemic data mining of all our
information, all our communications isn’t proportional. That
doesn’t go with the basic principles of human rights.
RT:Rousseff also urged the UNGA to protect cyberspace
from spying activities and sabotage, and said Brazil will equip
itself with legislation and technology to protect its online
users. Do you think it's possible for Brazil to fully isolate its
cyberspace?
AM: We’ve all become globally so dependent on the US
infrastructure, the US systems and also the US corporate internet
services – such as Google and what have you – so that could be
more difficult. However, many internet pioneers, many internet
activists have for years now been talking about moving away, the
need to move away from proprietary American-owned software
companies. So if you move to things like open-source codes,
open-source software where people can see what’s actually in that
code and can see if there’s any nasty NSA backdoors put in in
that code – then you can protect your national sovereignty and
you individual privacy much more effectively.
And, in fact, Brazil has been a bit of a trailblazer on this run
already. Over the last decade it moved many of its crucial
national infrastructures to open-source software. So, they’re
already thinking on the right lines and I think that the
revelations from the Snowden papers about the sheer scale of
invasive spying that’s been going on against Brazil by the US and
its allies will heighten that. And I think it’s a very good
thing, because it’ll prove an alternative infrastructure that
concerned citizens, who want to ensure their privacy around the
world, can potentially use. Rather than having to assume they
have to use US or UK-based software type services, which of
course are then mainlining into the NSA and GCHQ.
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.