NSA overreach revelations just keep coming and yet Sen. Feinstein’s Intelligence Committee, created to provide oversight to protect our privacy rights are trying to expand the reach of surveillance and data collection by our government. Google’s CEO’s critique in the last few days is an example, as the surveillance net is reported to entrap our data held by his company. Eric Schmidt said “widespread U.S. government spying on its data centers would be outrageous and potentially illegal if true” the Wall Street Journal reported.
We civil libertarians out here have a very effective friend in the Electronic Frontier Foundation, or EFF. And they are very much on top of the current expose on NSA overreach. Founded in 1990, their board and staff are techies and civil liberties lawyers who are keeping a very good eye on the explosion of electronic surveillance conducted by our government since the internet went public and the tragic malfeasance which allowed the tragedy of 9-11 to infuse terror into the hearts of Americans.
I became aware and appreciative of EFF when in Texas, dealing with the early beginnings there of voter suppression by Republicans. EFF supplied those of us fighting this abuse with information about the role of Fusion Centers in supplying personal data to the Republican Secretary of State on citizens whose personal information might be used against them in challenging their voter registration. Fusion centers were a creation of the Bush administration post 9-11 for “homeland security”.
If you are not familiar with EFF, go to their web site, www.eff.org. They provide research, funding sources and advocacy addressing government and private sector intrusion into our civil liberties. They provide the mostly semi-conscious mainstream media with seminal information about electronic intrusion by our government and legal action to advocate for our privacy rights.
Their work takes them into Blogger Rights, Coder Rights, Free Speech Weak Links, Global Chokepoints, HTTPS, Open Wireless Movement, Patent Busting, Surveillance Self-Defense, Copyright law, Transparency, Trolling Effects and they suggest ways activists can help the cause.
I suggest you put EFF’s site on your bookmark page and stay in regular contact with their work on our behalf. We need all the allies we can find out there to stop and pare back government intrusion that is attacking our freedoms in ways well beyond the scope our political/social attackers can do on their own. All the better for them that we allow fear to suppress our privacy and freedom.