[P2P-F] Fwd: [opennetcoalition] Snowden, the Terminator, and Us

Sat Jun 7 22:43:18 CEST 2014

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: La Quadrature du Net <contact at laquadrature.net>
Date: Thu, Jun 5, 2014 at 5:44 AM
Subject: [opennetcoalition] Snowden, the Terminator, and Us
To: opennetcoalition at laquadrature.net

Themes: EDWARD SNOWDEN, SURVEILLANCE, PRIVACY, HUMANITIES, MACHINES

OpEd by Jérémie Zimmermann, co-founder of La Quadrature du Net, published
in Mediapart on 5 June 2014 [1]

Permanent link:
https://www.laquadrature.net/en/snowden-the-terminator-and-us

Snowden, the Terminator, and Us

*** One year ago day by day, a courageous young man named Edward Snowden
sacrificed most of his life and his freedoms to show us the crude reality
of the world we are living in. His ongoing revelations make us learn and
understand how our relationship to technology has changed forever, and how
the trust we place in machines shall never be the same. Edward Snowden also
shows us a path for taking back control of the machines, an urgent task
that no one today can ignore. ***

We live already in the era of the Cyborg. Our Humanities are practically
indistinct from the Machine. Functions of our bodies such as communicating,
remembering, recognizing each other, our personal and shared memories and
most of our works are now indivisible from the functions of the machines.

Computers, phones and servers are all interconnected through software and
communication networks. This global interconnected Machine is increasingly
merging with our global interconnected humanity – soon on faces, wrists and
under the skin – and so far most of us trusted it with about everything.

Yet in the era of the Cyborg, what we see thanks to Ed Snowden is that this
global Machine has been turned as a whole against us. It has been turned as
a tool for global surveillance and for control of individuals, at the cost
of massive violations of our fundamental rights. With many abuses already
demonstrated, the Machine bears an immense, horrendous, potential for abuse
and repression, from political to economic espionage. Any political
movement, any revolution, any idea could potentially be crushed in a snap.

The Machine as a whole has been repurposed. From obeying us, its users, its
owners, it has been reprogrammed to obey its real masters, comprised of an
ill-defined alliance of some of the biggest companies in the world such as
Google, Apple, Facebook and Microsoft, of unaccountable spying agencies
such as the NSA, GHCQ or the DGSE, and of thousands of their private or
public partners (among which a myriad of private contractors and at least
950.000 US citizens cleared with a Top Secret clearance).

Many of us still find more comfortable to ignore the truth than to change
their habits. Perhaps truth is so violent and scary that it becomes too
difficult to admit. Perhaps the gap between reality and comfortable
illusions is too big.

Still, we have an immense responsibility to ask ourselves questions that
will shape the future of our societies, our relationship to power, as well
as our relationships between individuals. Where is the boundary between our
humanities and the Machine? Did we consciously accept it as it is? How can
we take back control of that Machine, which is now part of ourselves?

What is at stake is the very definition of our humanities. For massive
surveillance implies violation and potential annihilation of our
intimacies, these spaces where we decide, in full trust –alone or with
others– to be truly ourselves, to experiment with ourselves, to develop new
ideas and theories, to write, sing and create. In these spaces we develop
our identities, our very definitions of who we are…

Fortunately, Edward Snowden also showed us a pathway out. Governments can
maybe made accountable, and mass surveillance can surely be evaded, and
made much more costly. By moving away from technology that controls us, we
can use, promote and develop technology that makes us more free. It is a
long path, requiring efforts, to break away with the habits and the blind
trust we placed in the Machine, and requiring an appropriation of
technology by everyone. Through the use of free software, decentralized
architectures and end-to-end encryption, we can –probably– take back
control of the Machine.

It is our duty as a civilisation and as individuals. We must fight this
Machine of oppression by all means, before it is too late, in order to
reconquer and reclaim our humanity.

* Reference *

1.
http://blogs.mediapart.fr/en/edition/english-club/article/050614/snowden-terminator-and-us

** About La Quadrature du Net **

La Quadrature du Net is an advocacy group that defends the rights and
freedoms of citizens on the Internet. More specifically, it advocates for
the adaptation of French and European legislations to respect the founding
principles of the Internet, most notably the free circulation of knowledge.

In addition to its advocacy work, the group also aims to foster a better
understanding of legislative processes among citizens. Through specific and
pertinent information and tools, La Quadrature du Net hopes to encourage
citizens' participation in the public debate on rights and freedoms in the
digital age.

La Quadrature du Net is supported by French, European and international
NGOs including the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Open Society
Institute and Privacy International.

List of supporting organisations:
https://www.laquadrature.net/en/they-support-la-quadrature-du-net

** Press contact and press room **

contact at laquadrature.net, +33 (0) 972 294 426

https://www.laquadrature.net/en/press-room

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-- 
*Please note an intrusion wiped out my inbox on February 8; I have no
record of previous communication, proposals, etc ..*

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