Why privacy matters
We live in a world where everything we do on the internet is tracked and stored (if we don’t oppose with privacy-focused services). How might it affect you – today or tomorrow? And what will the data collection lead to, if we don’t resist? Read more about the mass surveillance of today, and how it threatens free societies.
Download the articles as pdfCommercial mass surveillance
The tech giants know everything about you – whether or not you use their services.
The business model
Your online behavior is the raw material from which one of the biggest economies in the history of the world has been built. But it isn’t the images you post, the comments you write or the messages you send that are the hard currency. It’s the data about the data that’s the true treasure. With what’s known as metadata, the tech giants aren’t satisfied with monitoring your life – they’ve decided to control it.
Read morePart 1: Big tech – they’ve collected so much data about you that they’ve lost control.
The actors behind the data collection
You already know which big companies collect data for commercial purposes. But the question is whether you’re aware of the absurd extent of this data collection. You can take as long as you like to think about it, but the answer is still ‘No’. Not even the companies themselves know how much data they collect, where it goes and how they should control it.
Read morePart 2: Data brokers – You've never even heard of them. They know almost everything about you.
The actors behind the data collection
It's not just the tech giants that carry out commercial mass surveillance. There are companies working in the shadows, with a single purpose: to collect, buy and sell data about your online activities. And the lists they offer for sale don't make pleasant reading.
Read moreHow the commercial mass surveillance companies collect your data and map your life.
The technology behind the data collection
The tech giants follow every step you take regardless of whether or not you use their services. But how does it actually work when they steal your behavior and place it in huge AI and machine learning systems to build a profile of you? Here are the methods behind the surveillance.
Read moreOrganizations that collect data often claim it’s anonymous. Research shows this is impossible.
The collected data can’t be kept anonymous
When the tech giants collect huge quantities of data about your internet behavior, they always hide behind defenses such as ‘it’s only metadata’ or ‘we’ve anonymized the information’. But if you collect big data, it’s impossible to keep it anonymous. It’s enough for your phone to reveal four places you’ve been to work out that it’s you.
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State mass surveillance
Democratic and authoritarian countries are competing to see which of them can carry out mass surveillance most and best (worst).
USA and their friends in the surveillance alliance Fourteen Eyes have demonstrated that they have the capacity, the desire and the experience to monitor who they want, when they want, anywhere in the world. China and other totalitarian countries use mass surveillance to control their inhabitants. It often feels like a dystopian arms race is going on around the world. But who is actually the best (worst) at making George Orwell’s 1984 a reality?
Read moreChat Control & Going Dark: The war on encryption is on the rise. Through a shady collaboration between the US and the EU.
After Snowden’s whistleblowing in 2013, large parts of the internet became encrypted, enabling private and secure communication. Not everyone has welcomed this change. Most notably, the FBI and other U.S. government agencies have fought what is often called the “crypto wars”, the war on encryption. In recent years, they have been joined by the European Commission. Under the slogan “what about the children,” they try to introduce total mass surveillance of all EU citizens — first through the proposed Chat Control legislation, and later via the Going Dark and ProtectEU initiatives. The goal is to legally mandate spy tools on every European smartphone and computer. The forces behind these efforts have turned out to be American tech companies and intelligence agencies.
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The consequences of mass surveillance
Monitoring your internet behavior has consequences – you may just not be seeing them yet.
How the collected data is used
Commercial and state mass surveillance collects absurd quantities of data about people all over the world. But what is all the data used for? When your internet behavior has been mapped, what might it lead to?
Read moreBoth state and commercial mass surveillance risk transforming free democracies into surveillance states
How data collection threatens a free society
Authoritarian states use mass surveillance to control the population. Even in democratic countries, we see direct consequences of collecting absurd amounts of data. But there are also less visible effects: both state and commercial mass surveillance show signs of being able to transform free societies into the complete opposite.
Read moreTo those of you with nothing to hide: One day you might have. Because you don’t make the rules.
The consequences of mass surveillance: We all have something to hide.
The most common argument used in defense of mass surveillance is ‘If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear’. Try saying that to women in the US states where abortion has suddenly become illegal. Say it to investigative journalists in authoritarian countries. Saying ‘I have nothing to hide’ means you stop caring about anyone fighting for their freedom. And one day, you might be one of them.
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