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Update - October 2015

Many big tech companies are now formally opposed CISA, and voted against the bill in recent weeks. These companies, like many others, are concerned that the bill poses great risks to privacy and security for users of the Internet, and to allow monitoring by the government. Companies of talk recently include Yelp, reddit, Wikipedia and Twitter. CCIA (an industry association that represents many major tech companies such as including Google, Facebook, Yahoo and Amazon) also formally pronounced against the bill in a blog post published on October 15

update - September 2015

September 28, BSA and its member companies tech said the letter they signed and sent to Congress (referenced below) No has not been approved CISA, or any particular bill. As reported by the BSA, "The letter has not approved specific legislation in its current form."

Original Post

As reported this week, several major companies, including many high-tech companies, have signed a letter that takes action on legislation relating data, including similar legislation in CISA (law on information sharing on cyber security). If passed, CISA and would encourage companies to share user data with the government and the other

The support came in the form of a letter from the BSA. The Software Alliance that the companies have signed, which "requested action" on several bills, including Cyber ​​Threat Information Sharing Legislation . Most of the points raised in the letter seem to reflect the objectives of the CISA, although the letter does not specifically approved CISA. As stated in the letter, a data-sharing law "will promote cybersecurity and protect sensitive information by allowing private players in possession of information on vulnerability and intrusion to more easily share this information willingly with others under threat . "

This is a rather surprising turn of events, considering many of these companies steps to protect user data and fight against the backdoor encryption for purposes of application of the law previously backed . CISA is a dangerous piece of legislation, and in substance a draft monitoring law. If passed, it would greatly expand the power of governments and companies to spy on people by accessing their user data and communications. We are strongly opposed to CISA, and any law that has similar goals.

What can you do?

Fight For Sign the petition against the future CISA

Read our post "We must stop CISA"

See Letter BSA

We recently updated our Paper Vision, and we wanted to share some content on our website

Internet is censored and limited worldwide. As a result, many people do not have access to the free and open Internet, we believe they should.

In a 2014 report by Freedom House, a monitoring organization dedicated to the expansion of freedom, it was reported that many of the countries surveyed had Internet experience that was only partially free or not at all. In addition, Internet freedom was down for the fourth consecutive year. The reasons for the decline include: increased surveillance, repressive laws, regulations on the use of media and cyber attacks

Likewise Transparency Report Google shows that 63 countries have asked him to restrict access to certain content. in the first six months of 2014. Only in 2013, Google was asked to remove over 39,000 items from its search results, and other sites.

These are just two examples of the widespread, increasing Internet censorship taking place around the world. This censorship poses a great obstacle to the freedom of the Internet, and we must work actively to fight against the trend. A Golden Frog we believe in a free Internet restrictions, and we are constantly fighting for the Internet experience for users. Learn more about our vision of a free and open Internet - Read Our Vision Paper

Source: Freedom House Freedom on the Net 2014 Google Transparency Report

Less than two weeks after the data retention legislation came into force in Australia, the lower house of Parliament voted in Germany for its own data retention legislation. The law will require ISPs and telecom operators to keep the metadata to customers for up to 10 weeks. This includes the telephone numbers, the duration of calls, the location of telephone calls (4 weeks of requirement) and IP addresses. The law excludes email communications.

The rationale for this law is that the police need a lot of metadata to help in their investigations, though access to the data would require a warrant. The law requires that metadata should be stored in Germany.

Germany has already rejected a law requiring the storage of metadata, including the European Union (EU) directive "in 06 forcing telecom operators retain all customer communication data for up to two years. "They ruled this unconstitutional similar legislation.

While the data retention period in Germany is much shorter than Australia, the adoption of this law continues frightening trend. Data retention is a violation of the privacy of the user, and takes control of the consumer. If you are worried about your data retained and controlled, there is a solution - you can encrypt your Internet connection to protect your communications with a VPN

Protect yourself and your metadata :. Try free VyprVPN

Source: ZD Net and IT News

The United States has taken a step in the right direction on the encryption issue in the last few weeks, the government officially announced that they would not search "backdoors" in encrypted communications (at least not for now).

It comes as a bit of a surprise, then, that the United Kingdom has announced a bill which prohibits strong encryption built-in technology, and exact mandate of "encryption backdoors" to United States decided against

the proposed UK legislation called Bill investigative powers and means that businesses -. including technology giants like Google and Apple - no will not be able to offer encryption they can 't break. These companies must be able to decipher their encryption, and access to communications that pass through their devices on request to do so (by the police or other officials). This means they can not build end to end encryption in their products. many popular products such as the Apple iPhone, currently using encryption technology throughout.

as reported by the Telegraph, the law "for the first time, place a duty on companies to be able to access their data to clients in law".

purpose of the law is to contribute to law enforcement efforts. It also requires Internet companies to retain their customers web history for up to a year, continuing a frightening trend of data retention. , Invasive Similar laws have recently been proposed or adopted in Australia, Germany and France.

Not surprisingly, there was a lot of reaction against the bill in the UK, with many prominent people speak against it. Some have even suggested that Apple should stop selling the iPhone in the UK.

As a company that strongly believes in privacy and online safety, we are shocked by the bill. Encryption is a powerful tool, and construction of this access "backdoor" weakens the encryption, leaving users vulnerable to violations of privacy and surveillance

Update - November 2015:. Apple CEO Tim Cook came out in strong opposition to the bill investigative powers, speaking against it and warning of potential "dire consequences." he stressed the bill will create vulnerabilities for consumers, stating that "Any back door is a back door for everyone. "

CEO Micheal Dell also joined the conversation, stating that he was strongly opposed to encryption backdoors and describing them as" horrible idea. "

In the days since the project law was announced there have also been some concerns about the costs for Internet service providers, questioning whether the implementation is still possible

update - December 2015 :. A group of tech giants - including Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter and Yahoo - criticized the bill investigative powers on 21 December, they advocated. "significant changes" and did not want to register for proposals for bulk monitoring, the lowest encryption and other measures. They also explained that the laws surveillance could "undermined confidence" with their customers and expressed concern about the vague language requirement for companies overseas to hand over data to the British government

update. - February 2016: The Investigatory Powers Bill is still very controversial and face criticism. A committee of politicians, called the Special Joint Committee (JSC), were looking for in this bill and issued recommendations on how the bill should be amended. As reported in an article in the International Business Times they said "the new measure should be allowed, but only after significant work is done to clarify the bill." Specifically, they ask for more details on encryption. the Committee of intelligence and security recently issued a report on the bill, which cited concerns that the bill does not include provisions to protect the privacy of citizens of the United Kingdom. science Committee and technology of the British Parliament also said it could damage the country's technology sector

update - March 2016 :. Unfortunate news aujourd 'hui as Bill investigative powers, or "Charter Snooper" as it is often called, passed its second reading in Parliament. This passage comes despite criticism to the bill, including a letter open signed by 0 lawyers who claim the bill "does not meet international standards of surveillance powers" and needed a major overhaul. The vote in favor of the bill has been overwhelming, reaches 281: 15. The work and SNP parties abstained. Read more about the vote, and the party position

Update - June 2016 :. The investigative powers bill passed to the House of Commons June 7, 2016. the vote was very favorable - 444-69 - although several concerns about the bill have continued to express. Some amendments were included in the bill, which "has put privacy at the heart of the bill." The provisions for a "double-lock procedure", which would require the further approval of the warrants, was also mentioned. Despite these changes, the bill still allows monitoring, with wide powers and "intrusive" . the bill will now go to the House of Lords for consideration and amendment before additional vote. You can read more details here.

It was reported last week that Vizio user activity Smart TVs of the track and listening habits and report them to advertisers. This monitoring is designated by the company "Smart Interactivity" and is enabled by default, so users must manually opt-out functionality to disable it. More worryingly, this information can also be applied on all devices - meaning that advertisers can use this information to target users on their smartphones and other devices

As reported by ProPublica, Vizio said "non-personally identifiable. information may be shared with selected partners ... to allow these companies to, for example, more informed decisions on content production, programming and advertising. "

function analyzes what you watch, then" sets date, time, channel programs - and if you watched the live or recorded "This information is then connected to the address IP of the user, allowing the device against-targeting capabilities

Vizio says these practices .. in their privacy policies, but they are still concerning, especially as users are automatically opted -in. Smart Samsung and LG TV providers also track users, but only if they turn the function. Not surprisingly many people are alarmed by these practices, and it was reported this week that Vizio has continued over them.

cases like this illustrate the importance of protecting your privacy across devices, both in and outside the house. It is always important to read the Privacy policy, and be aware of your device information can be collected and passed along to advertisers or other third parties.

The EFF has recently published a website - onlinecensorship.org - which aims to increase transparency in online censorship which often takes place on social media sites.

Onlinecensorship.org tracks content removals and removals across the major social sites (Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, etc.) in order to raise awareness about censorship and obstacles to freedom of expression that occur online.

site users can submit their own reports contained deletions, learn how to use content removals on various websites and read case studies and other reports on content restrictions. The data collected is intended to provide an overview of trends around content deletions and context of these cuts and to spread awareness in the hope of making them more responsible companies.

The EFF has worked with Impact Visualization to create the site.

We saw a lot of confidence this year, from blocking content monitoring and control flat through "large visor fire "in 2015 freedom House freedom on the net even reported that Internet freedom around the world declined for the fifth consecutive year. - a very disturbing fact our Top 10 list takes a glance. look at some of the most alarming censorship events this year in countries around the world

10 - Draft Cyber ​​Crime Bill: Pakistan

Pakistan introduced a bill crime draft cyber very strict at the beginning of this year, called prevention Bill electronic crimes, which has frightening implications. Moreover, their interdepartmental committee was previously responsible for the censorship was dissolved, and the government regulator put in charge of censorship and content management on the Internet instead

9 - political settlement line Project. South Africa

A draft less well known law that was announced this year is the project of the South African online Regulatory Policy, produced by Film and Publication Board countries (FPB ). The law contains many disturbing provisions, and as distilled by the EFF means "any online platform can be ordered to shoot down any content distributed online as the Commission may consider as potentially dangerous and worrying." Part of the reason why it was so surprising that South Africa generally has a free and open Internet experience

8 - right location data and increased control :. Russia

a country known for the restrictions, Russia has signed a new law of conservation of return data in 2014 which came into force on 1 September 2015. This law includes alarming provisions, including requirements for companies store data on Russian citizens on Russian soil (also known as "location data")

7 - game Video Ban. Saudi Arabia

t one of the most restrictive countries in MENA, Saudi Arabia continued its censorship practices this year. It would have prohibited Fallout 4, a popular video game, probably due to game content, including violence and other negative behaviors. In addition, "The Saudi government has continued to use the strict filtering Internet content" in early 2015, and people exercised self-censorship by commenting on sensitive topics such as politics, religion and the royal family online.

6 - blocking VoIP Egypt

Egypt would have blocked the popular Voice Over IP services (such as Skype) earlier this year. Egypt already has internet experience "not free", and saw the self-censorship and arrests based on content or messages posted online also increases well

5 -. Plans for a large firewall (and Intercept Encrypted communications): Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan has announced plans for its own "Great Firewall," to start operating in 2015. The firewall will intercept encrypted communications, opening the citizens of increased government surveillance, monitoring and censorship. There were also reports of the government to cut the mobile service and Internet temporarily following the events in the country. Already rated "not free" for freedom of the Internet, news of this great firewall is alarming particulairly

4 - Social Media Ban :. Bangladesh

Bangladesh banned social networks like Facebook, WhatsApps and other events after this year - twice. The bans were introduced briefly in January and again in November

3 - Plans for a [Another] Great Firewall :. Thailand

Thailand has announced plans for its own "Great Firewall" - a single Internet gateway that would allow them to control all information entering and leaving the country. This initiative was met with much resistance, and concerns about the restrictive firewall and censorious echoed from various parts

2 -. Turkey

Turkey blocked twitter several times this year, and reddit also blocked for a short period of time this fall. Last week, Turkey has continued to show disdain for Twitter when they condemned to a fine on Twitter what they call "terrorist propaganda." As stated in the Freedom on the Net 2015 "In the first half of 2015, 92 percent of all court orders to remove content received via Twitter worldwide originated in Turkey"

1 -. China

China tops our list as it continues its pervasive Internet censorship program through the Great Firewall. China's citizens continue to suffer from oppressive Internet censorship and restrictions, and do not have access to a free and open Internet experience. China ranked dead last in terms of Internet freedom around the world in freedom on the Net 2015 report It was reported that 16 of the top 30 sites were blocked, and is Wikipedia went from being partially blocked completely blocked. Censorship is so extreme, it is even stifle innovation startups in the country. China has also blocked many VPN providers this year (not VyprVPN - our technology Chameleon VPN blocking defeats and continues to provide access in China). Meanwhile, top Chinese censorship continues to deny that Internet censorship is underway.

More

We are disheartened by the news that Internet freedom has declined further since 2014, and can only hope that things will improve in 2016 . good resources to learn more about the censorship of freedom on the net 2015 Report and Paper vision Golden Frog, describing our vision of a free Internet experience, open and unrestricted.

Sources :. Linked to throughout this post, and freedom on the net Report 2015