UN Considering Proposals to Control Internet - Behind Closed Doors

[snot]

From http://www.wired.com/opinion/2012/11/you-cant-make-decisions-about-the-open-internet-behind-closed-doors/ :

{The article says the process is structured to take place without transparency and without input from many stakeholders, including the experts who helped build and maintain the internet. But . . . }

Those are just concerns about the process. When you look at some of the proposals themselves, it’s downright frightening.

* * * * *

By giving the ITU and its member states more control over cybersecurity, some of the government proposals . . . justify censoring and spying on their citizens.

* * * * *
The internet is so efficient in part because packets swiftly traverse the network without being confined to a pre-determined route. . . . [but one proposal] would give governments the “right to know how its traffic is routed” . . . . potentially creating a series of bottlenecks resulting in increased surveillance, slower connection speeds, and increased costs to users.

* * * * *
Other proposals . . . would increase costs to send content – potentially cutting off large swaths of the world from some online services and media.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

1. The US still controls root

And the design paradigms are in the network and technology DNA and not subject to bureaucratic whim.

IIRC there was a congressional vote recently to reject UN/ITU takeover...

[woo me with science]

2. And the US is *already* surveilling all of us in violation of the Constitution.

And a massive spy center is being constructed in Utah for collecting data on all of us.

And Obama signed ACTA and then tried to hide it from the US press by calling it a "national security issue."

And the administration has an internet ID plan in progress which has never been discussed with the public.

And after several "cybersecurity" orders were rejected in Congress because of concerns about privacy, Obama wrote an executive order which will force through the measures at any time.

I think we have very good reason to be outraged and concerned about the future, not just because of the UN, but based on our own government's actions.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

3. The spying can be defeated easily enough if it is important to you

Also the commercial companies can refuse to carry certain traffic or support the new "features". Silicon Valley does not answer to the ITU

[woo me with science]

4. "if it is important to you"

Governments should not spy on their citizens. Damn right that's important, and, no, the ability to "get around it" is not the point.

But, then, you already knew that.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

5. Actually that in the US that we are allowed to block it is important

in other countries, including western ones, doing so is a crime in itself.

If a person or group is trying to not have their comms intercepted, it can be done, but its a PITA. Clear trade between ease of use and security.

[snot]

6. How easy is it really for the average grandma to defeat the spying?

And relying on commercial companies to protect my rights -- surely you jest?