Electronic syrveiilance

Government Escalates Surveillance of What You Say, Read on the ’Net

When using the Internet, mostpeople probably have an implicit understanding that there is, somewhere, some anonymous federal agent sitting inside some anonymous federal building, tracking and recording the websites we visit, the emails we send, and generally everything we do online. And while the Internet has been revolutionary in its ability to break the information stranglehold that the political class held before the advent of the World Wide Web, governments around the world have eagerly developed extensive networks to spy onanyone they wish.

When exposed, this spying tends to rankle the tech companies drafted into the federal government’s army of snoops, and in response, several companies have released transparency reports to inform the public how often governments request information and the specific nature of the request. What those reports reveal, while not all that surprising, should alarm us nonetheless.