Surveillance

The web was designed to bring people together and make knowledge freely available. Everyone has a role to play to ensure the web serves humanity. By committing to the following principles, governments, companies and citizens around the world can help protect the open web as a public good and a basic right for everyone.

Governments Will

Ensure everyone can connect to the internet so that anyone, no matter who they are or where they live, can participate actively online.

Officials in Beijing are providing governments around the world with technology and training that enable them to control their own citizens. As Chinese companies compete with their international counterparts in crucial fields such as artificial intelligence and 5G mobile service, the democratic norms that long governed the global Internet are falling by the wayside. When it comes to Internet freedom, many governments are eager to buy the restrictive model that China is selling.

The internet is growing less free around the world, and democracy itself is withering under its influence. Disinformation and propaganda disseminated online have poisoned the public sphere. The unbridled collection of personal data has broken down traditional notions of privacy. And a cohort of countries is moving toward digital authoritarianism by embracing the Chinese model of extensive censorship and automated surveillance systems. As a result of these trends, global internet freedom declined for the eighth consecutive year in 2018.

Several elements involved in the deployment of Smart Cities rely on Federal Communications Commission activity or involvement. Let’s explore some of the policy issues and discussions that may be necessary to make Smart Cities happen in the near term.

China Telecom, a state-owned telecommunications company, has been "hijacking the vital internet backbone of western countries," according to researchers from the US Naval War College and Tel Aviv University. China Telecom, the country's third-largest telco and internet service provider, has had a presence inside North American networks since the early 2000s when it created its first point-of-presence (PoP).

The Senate confirmed the nominations of three members, including a new chairman, to the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board — which has stood as a one-person show for roughly two years. Now the five-seat body, which monitors the government’s national security efforts, will get a needed boost with the additions of Jane Nitze and Edward Felten as board members and Adam Klein as chairman. The confirmations come at a critical time, with the review of the European Union-US Privacy Shield data sharing agreement fast approaching. 

A major US telecommunications company discovered manipulated hardware from Super Micro Computer Inc. in its network and removed it in Aug, fresh evidence of tampering in China of critical technology components bound for the US, according to Yossi Appleboum, a security expert working for the telecom company.

What could Judge Brett Kavanaugh's addition to the Supreme Court mean for the tech sector? 

In the wake of news that a federal court in CA rejected Department of Justice demands that Facebook break, bypass, or remove the encryption in its Messenger app, it’s worth noting how little we still know about such an important dispute. Depending on what specific relief the government sought from the court, the case may signal a potentially significant threat to the security of Internet-based communications. In a hyperconnected world, the implications of the government’s demand for expanded surveillance capabilities go far beyond any legitimate law enforcement equities in any single case.

Although the decision remains under seal, a federal judge in California apparently ruled that the government cannot force Facebook to break the encryption on its popular Messenger voice app in a criminal case in which agents wanted to intercept a suspect’s conversations. The decision could be a setback for the Justice Department which sought to compel Facebook to figure out how to give it access to the encrypted communications.