Tim Berners-Lee: UK and US Must Do More to Protect Internet Users' Privacy

Sir Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the world wide web

THE GUARDIAN: 'Tide of surveillance and censorship' threatens future of democracy, says inventor of world wide web

The UK and US must do more to protect internet users' privacy, the inventor of the world wide web, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, has warned as a survey of online freedoms is released.

Berners-Lee warned that "a growing tide of surveillance and censorship" posed a threat to the future of democracy, even as more and more people were using the internet to expose wrongdoing.

His remarks came before the second annual release of a global league table that classifies countries according to a set of freedoms. Since last year, the US has dropped from second place to fourth, while the UK has remained in third place. Sweden still tops the list, with Norway in second place. All of the Scandinavian countries – Sweden, Denmark and Norway – feature in the top 10.

The UK was poorly placed on privacy rights but was lifted by its high scores for availability of relevant content and the internet's political impact. Read on and comment » | Charles Arthur and agencies | Friday, November 22, 2013

'I Used to Think US Best Country for Privacy & Freedom' - Lavabit Founder

His business suffered in the wake of the NSA leaks scandal because the service he provided was used by the person now most wanted in the US - Edward Snowden. SophieCo is talking to Ladar Levison, founder and owner of encrypted email service Lavabit.com, who says all he cares for is the privacy and the trust of his clients.

GCHQ Faces Legal Challenge in European Court over Online Privacy

THE GUARDIAN: Campaigners accuse British spy agency of breaching privacy of millions in UK and Europe via online surveillance

The UK spy agency GCHQ is facing a legal challenge in the European courts over claims its mass online surveillance programmes have breached the privacy of tens of millions of people across the UK and Europe.

Three campaign groups – Big Brother Watch, the Open Rights Group and English PEN – together with the German internet activist Constanze Kurz have filed papers at the European court of human rights alleging that the collection of vast amounts of data, including the content of emails and social media messages, by UK spy agencies is illegal.

The move follows revelations by the US whistleblower Edward Snowden that GCHQ has the capacity to collect more than 21 petabytes of data a day – equivalent to sending all the information in all the books in the British Library 192 times every 24 hours.

Daniel Carey, solicitor at Deighton Pierce Glynn, which is taking the case, said: "We are asking the court to declare that unrestrained surveillance of much of Europe's internet communications by the UK government, and the outdated regulatory system that has permitted this, breach our rights to privacy." » | Matthew Taylor and Nick Hopkins | Thursday, October 03, 2013

Inside Story Americas: Public Safety or Privacy Intrusion?
We discuss if it is acceptable for the US government to access American citizens' personal data.

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