Surveillance a ‘Freedom of Speech’ Issue, Says Former White House Official
Andrew McLaughlin, who recently left his post as deputy chief technology officer in the White House, says that the rise in surveillance is an issue of Internet freedom.“We tend to treat freedom of speech issues on the Internet as matters of censorship, but the real threat is surveillance,” he said in an interview. “It’s exceedingly easy for governments to conduct online and mobile surveillance.”
The Wall Street Journal unveiled on Saturday the “Surveillance Catalog” – an online database containing highlights from surveillance industry marketing documents. The documents show dozens of companies making and selling everything from “massive intercept” gear that can gather all Internet communications in a country to “hacking” tools that allow governments to break into people’s computers.
In the article, Mr. McLaughlin was quoted saying that “The Arab Spring countries all had more sophisticated surveillance capabilities than I would have guessed.” More
