Rein in Big Brother

We always knew that Big Brother was watching, and listening. In making this public, Vodafone just reiterated it given the greater awareness now of what dirty tricks departments of governments are up to.

Vodafone has made it official that in at least six of 29 countries where it operates, direct wiretaps are a reality and governments don’t even pretend they need warrants to intercept communications.

Official surveillance, that often crudely invades privacy, has been in international focus since Edward Snowden spilled the beans on how spy agencies haven’t simply been tapping telephones, but also gathering metadata on the Internet.

There is no form of communication left that is secret anymore, and ordinary citizens too have their private mails/calls intercepted, even in the world’s most open democracies, including India.

The implications of direct wiretaps, where the state bypasses service providers through a permanent link, are truly terrifying. Such links expose even innocent conversations or messages, including business secrets, open to all kinds of mischievous intervention.

Vodafone struck a blow for transparency by exposing direct wiretaps, but it is debatable if governments are really impressed by this big push for transparency by telecommunication firms.

So far have governments gone in invading people’s privacy that it is high time they now evolve systems which would make widespread breaches of privacy needless.