Civil liberties group gives warnings for 2010

CYBER CIVIL LIBERTIES GROUP the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has been a thorn in the sides of authoritarian politicians and their mega-corporation allies for two decades now, and its disparate band of well meaning techno-hippies, ex-industry revolutionaries and digital anarchists have struck a number of strong blows against heavy handed government agencies, companies and their dogs of law.

The non-profit organisation recently published a watch list of digital trends that might affect everyone in the coming year, and there are some interesting insights and warnings to which all of us probably should take heed. We've picked our favourites here.

Secrets and Lies
We are all too well aware of the pitfalls involved in protecting our data and digital identities in a world where organised bands of cyber criminals roam unchallenged and unpunished. Levels of spam and malicious attacks are getting out of hand, and even giant corporations like Google remain open to the kinds of attacks that can cause untold damage. When an invasion by hackers can cause the mighty Google to seriously consider withdrawing from potentially the biggest Internet market the planet has ever known you know that something is rotten to the core.

Sophisticated cryptography is supposed to be there to protect us all, but the EFF is less than confident that even the latest algorithms are up to the job: "In 2010, several problems with cryptography implementations should come to the fore, showing that even encrypted communications aren't as safe as users expect. Two of the most significant problems we expect concern cellphone security and web browser security, said the organisation's Tim Jones."

And it's not just your email and other Internet communications that are under attack. The EFF warns that this year's biggest communications security breakdown likely will be in GSM mobile phone networks. Apparently the security measures used by most telcos are deeply flawed and devices that can easily unscramble mobile signals are becoming cheaper and easier to obtain.

Furthermore, the Secure Socket Layer (SSL) of encryption used by the vast majority of web sites is starting to show its age and creak under the barrage of attacks to which it is submitted every day. Even the latest iteration of the technology, TLS, is starting to show weaknesses.

It's a Free World
The music and movie industries, having failed miserably to stop the tide of free downloading which threatened the very fabric of society if you believed their legal arguments, finally seem to have realised that it's a new world, and people are quite happy to pay for content as long as it's reasonably priced, not tied up in infuriating digital shackles, and available how and when people want it.

Next up in the battle for the hearts and minds of the increasingly online population is the traditional publishing world. Book and newspaper publishers will have to grow up or shut up as people continue to turn to the Internet for news, and to e-readers like Amazon's Kindle for their latest Stephen King or Harry Potter fix. Unless publishers wake up and smell the coffee pretty quickly, the backlash will be swift and brutal. The newspaper industry will continue to struggle along in its current form because people like big inky newspapers. The book publishers, on the other hand, really need to look long and hard at their operational models. People like shelves full of books. They like the feel and the smell and the weight of a slab of paper in their hands. But buying a book should constitute a licence to read that book in any form the consumer choses.

If you pay £20 for the latest Dan Brown offering, that payment should allow you to enjoy it in the bound version in your living room, in digital form on your e-reader and in spoken word form on your MP3 player. It's quite simple. Put a unique code inside the cover of every paper book which will allow the other formats to be downloaded. True, you will get multiple readers using the same code, but who hasn't bought a second hand paperback? It's all swings and roundabouts.

Diary of a Young Man
Love it or hate it, porn is here to stay. Pictures of people doing the deed have been around pretty much as long as people. No amount of filtering or net blocking is ever going to stop people from looking at other people bumping uglies, but protecting children and vulnerable adults from unscrupulous perverts is essential.

Here's a simple solution. Every porn site in the world gets a URL starting with xxx rather than www. Anyone not allowed by the laws of their territory to view such material can't. Anyone who operates outside the convention gets kicked out of touch. Game over.

Riff-Raff
We think that every criminal hacker, cracker, virus and Trojan writer and bot-net master on the planet should be rounded up, thrown into a giant vat of dog poop, and played Chris de Burgh's Greatest Hits on an infinite loop until they draw their final dungy breath. Unfortunately, lots of them now have highly paid jobs working for so-called security companies that constantly remind us how vulnerable our computers and other devices are.

The EFF, however, thinks that there is a useful role in society for hardware hackers. They are the people who are trying to figure out how to make hardware devices more useful and open. Video games consoles, printers, audio players, e-book readers, mobile phones and digital cameras all have levels of proprietary hobbling, whether it be stopping you from using cheaper third party ink or being able to play your paid-for music downloads in whichever format you see fit. The EFF is currently lobbying to legally protect users who choose to jailbreak their smartphones, and the tide of opinion here is gathering strength, no doubt bolstered by more open platforms like Android.

The Navigators
Does your mobile phone have satellite navigation? Isn't it great knowing exactly where you are 24 hours a day? Unfortunately, the technology works both ways. More and more of the devices we take for granted and use every day are capable of telling your friends (nice), your boss (not so nice), or the government (downright scary) exactly where you are at any given time. Social networks, public transport systems, and even your local supermarket are watching your every move. 1984 may have come a bit late but it's here, and it's probably here to stay unless organisations like the EFF continue to put pressure on governments and corporations to use our data responsibly.

Hidden Agenda
The Internet is huge, and growing at such an eye-watering rate that measuring its scope is almost pointless. It is possibly the biggest democratiser ever known to the human race and has made free speech a reality for most of the civilised world. There are of course some absolute horses' arses out there ranting racist filth and bigoted hatred and tinfoil-hatted lunacy, but no-one is forced to read it. You have the right to vote with your mouse.

But Net Neutrality relies on idealistic principles, the most important of which is freedom of speech. The day the government decides what we can see, hear or read is the day the Internet dies. That the US government has published a 107 page document on how to achieve net neutrality is worrying. Protecting children is the job of parents not politicians. We may not like it, but we should all be fighting for the right for anyone to say whatever they want whenever they want to say it. No-one is forcing you to read it.

Rolling up to the BNP's website, and then getting all upset because they are a bunch of mouth breathing, knuckle dragging, racist vermin is not an option.

Which Side Are You On?
The convergence between our TV set and your computer really kicked up a gear in the last year or two. Just about every mainstream network in the UK now has its very own catch-up service, following in the well-worn footsteps of the BBC's Iplayer. In America, however, broadcasters are being far less magnanimous with the content, crippling programming with draconian DRM schemes, which decide when and how you watch your downloaded content. The EFF expects the US TV companies to go even further in 2010 and has promised to be there to try and stop them.

Questions of Leadership
The EFF says that, in retrospect, 2009 wasn't too bad a year for US government meddling in online civil liberties, what with the new geezer in the big chair, the health system falling to bits and a couple of little skirmishes out in the desert. It does, however, point out that a number of worrying bits of legislation have been put on the back burner in the recent past, and that it will be keeping its eye on Mr Obama. Particular causes for concern are a bill that would allow the President to pull the plug on the Internet and plans to introduce mandatory ID cards.

Looking for Eric
When Friends Reunited first started allowing old school flames to get back together and commit adultery two decades ago, who would have thought social networking would grow into such an all pervasive and addictive waste of everyone's time? Facebook alone has roughly the same number of users as the entire Internet did a decade ago, and the EFF warns that the bad guys who exploited weaknesses in the Internet a decade ago are now turning to softer targets.

The amount of personal data stored on the average Facebook or Myspace account is a tempting proposition for phishing scammers and identity thieves. And with a whole generation growing up thinking that social networking sites are the Internet, it's only a matter of time before something goes horribly, horribly wrong.

Land and Freedom
Under pressure from powerful industry lobbyists, a number of countries, including the UK, France and Korea, are currently trying to impose draconian measures on habitual file sharers. The potential 'Three Strikes' legislation would force ISPs to excommunicate anyone accused - note we didn't say convicted - of downloading copyrighted material. Basically you'll get an email asking you to stop it, a posted letter telling you to stop it, then a registered letter telling you to stop it right now or we'll cut you off. Judge, jury and executioner, in other words.

The EFF says, "Expect media industry reports describing amazing local declines in filesharing, aimed at policymakers in other nations considering the same. And look out for local press reports from these three strikes ground zeroes, documenting the calamitous consequences of disconnections, the lack of financial return to working artists, and the political blowback for the politicians who championed these unjust laws."

As the Internet continues to grow and become a more integral part of all of our lives, it's nice to know that someone out there is watching the watchers, and we urge you all to support the EFF in all of its endeavours. Sure, they don't get everything right all of the time, and their often simplistic views about intellectual property can be painted in overly broad brushstrokes at times, but their collective heart is definitely in the right place. µ

L'Inq
Electronic Frontier Foundation