The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a San Francisco-based civil-liberties group, has shared its plan to stop global mass surveillance.
The plan includes keeping pressure on tech companies to protect our data against spying.
We need to cultivate a sense of responsibility on the part of all those who are building products to which the public entrusts its most sensitive and private data, the EFF says. They need to refuse to create backdoors and they need to fix any existing backdoors they become aware of. And they need to understand that they themselves, unfortunately, are going to be targets for governments that will try to penetrate, subvert, and coerce the technology world in order to expand their spying capabilities.
The plan also encourages encryption everywhere; pushing for transparency from companies and governments; bringing lawsuits, which the EFF has done; and pushing for new laws. The group also advocates reforming existing laws and presidential orders, including Executive Order 12333.
Executive Order 12333 is the primary authority the NSA uses to conduct its surveillance operations — including mass surveillance programs — overseas. Reforming mass surveillance requires reforming the NSA s authority under EO 12333, according to the EFF. Executive Order 12333 was created by a presidential order, and so a presidential order could undo all of this damage. That s why we re pressuring President Obama to issue a new executive order affirming the privacy rights of people worldwide and ending mass surveillance.
As SiliconBeat has reported, the EFF has also ranked Web companies encryption efforts; backed a tool that detects spyware used by governments; issued a personal privacy protection guide. The group also publishes the Who Has Your Back scorecards, which grade Web companies on how they respond to government requests for user data.
Illustration from Bay Area News Group archives
