[AISWorld] Academics Sign Up Against Surveillance

[Roger Clarke]

The initiative below was launched on Fri 3 Jan 2014 at 15:00 UT+00.

If you would like to sign the declaration, email to:
info (at) academicsagainstsurveillance.net

Please pass it on to any relevant academics and academic lists.

_______________________

A growing and very diverse list of academics from around the world 
have added their voice to civil society groups, companies, authors, 
etc. in issuing a strong statement against mass surveillance:
<http://academicsagainstsurveillance.net/>http://academicsagainstsurveillance.net/

Last summer it was revealed, largely thanks to Edward Snowden, that 
American and European intelligence services are engaging in mass 
surveillance of hundreds of millions of people.

Intelligence agencies monitor people's Internet use, obtain their 
phone calls, email messages, Facebook entries, financial details, and 
much more. Agencies have also gathered personal information by 
accessing the internal data flows of firms such as Google and Yahoo. 
Skype calls are "readily available" for interception. Agencies have 
purposefully weakened encryption standards - the same techniques that 
should protect our online banking and our medical files. These are 
just a few examples from recent press reports. In sum: the world is 
under an unprecedented level of surveillance.

This has to stop.

The right to privacy is a fundamental right. It is protected by 
international treaties, including the International Covenant on Civil 
and Political Rights and the European Convention on Human Rights. 
Without privacy people cannot freely express their opinions or seek 
and receive information. Moreover, mass surveillance turns the 
presumption of innocence into a presumption of guilt. Nobody denies 
the importance of protecting national security, public safety, or the 
detection of crime. But current secret and unfettered surveillance 
practices violate fundamental rights and the rule of law, and 
undermine democracy.

The signatories of this declaration call upon nation states to take 
action. Intelligence agencies must be subjected to transparency and 
accountability. People must be free from blanket mass surveillance 
conducted by intelligence agencies from their own or foreign 
countries. States must effectively protect everyone's fundamental 
rights and freedoms, and particularly everyone's privacy.

January 2014

-- 
Roger Clarke                                 http://www.rogerclarke.com/
			            
Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd      78 Sidaway St, Chapman ACT 2611 AUSTRALIA
Tel: +61 2 6288 6916                        http://about.me/roger.clarke
mailto:Roger.Clarke at xamax.com.au                http://www.xamax.com.au/

Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Law            University of N.S.W.
Visiting Professor in Computer Science    Australian National University