The wild frontier of Cyber Space is filled with battles fought daily on many different levels. However, there is one battle which has spilled over into the courtrooms of the physical world, involving Internet traffic and a secret room, controlled by NSA.
This is a logo designed for Electronic Frontier Foundation in their current legal battle. Note how the head phones on the eagle allow the bird to listen to the noise of Cyber Space,
while the claws hold numerous cables, which run through a secret room, controlled by NSA.
Acting on behalf of AT&T clients, Electronic Frontier Foundation is prepared to take on the giants of the United States in Jewel versus NSA.
Firms involved in telecommunications, were earlier this year, granted protection from prosecution in spying lawsuits, because of legislation passed by Congress. A case against AT&T is now blocked in the Federal Court. To overcome this, EFF opened a second front, claiming those who authorized, or had participated in a fishing expedition, be held accountable. A surveillance dragnet, allowing millions of regular Americans' emails to be read, has been kept in operation. Tucked away in San Francisco is a secret room operated by NSA, where copies of communication records of all Internet traffic are funneled to.
U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey has denied the existence of the dragnet, while asking the Federal Judge immunity for the communication companies.
High profile names such as President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Chief of Staff David Addington, former Attorney General and White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales and others, as well as NSA, are on the list of people being prosecuted.
Internet Service Providers, however, carry their users' conversations, secrets, relationships, acts, and omissions. Until recently they left most of the spy business untouched, because they had lacked the tools to spy invasively. Now, with recent advances in eavesdropping technology, they can spy on people, in unprecedented ways.
Advertisers and copyright owners have been tempting them to put their users' secrets up for sale, and judging from a recent flurry of reports ISPs are giving in to the temptation and experimenting with new forms of spying. This may only be the leading edge of a coming storm of extraordinary and omnipresent ISP surveillance.
How does a government protect itself from a repeat performance of terrorist attacks such as September 11, without being seen to be just plain nosey parkers? Could this fishing expedition have been the birthplace of the use of 'keywords'?
Founded in 1990, the watch dog Electronic Frontier Foundation, has a Google page ranking of 7. As the continuing drama unfolds in the courtrooms, it will be well worth keeping an eye on this site. However, after reading all this, it's easy to comprehend why more and more people are aiming to get out of the Rat Race. Some even aiming to move to a slower paced life of places like the adventure travel destination of the tropical islands of Vanuatu, in the South Pacific.
