Category: Governments

Read government privacy and censorship news on the Privacy Online News blog from Private Internet Access VPN Service.

State Lawmakers Propose Internet Censorship under Guise of Preventing Human Trafficking

Lawmakers in more than 15 states have proposed legislation that would censor the internet and stifle free speech in an ill-conceived attempt to prevent human trafficking. State Lawmakers Propose Internet Censorship under Guise of Preventing Human Trafficking The “Human Trafficking and Prevention Act” (HTPA), versions of which are currently circulating in state legislature across the … Continue reading “State Lawmakers Propose Internet Censorship under Guise of Preventing Human Trafficking”

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One month from today, the UK reintroduces censorship. Here’s why you should be on the barricades.

From April, the United Kingdom formally reintroduces governmental censorship. It’s supposed to be against pornography online, but there’s no such thing when it comes to censorship; pornography is merely — and always — the first thing on a long list to be censored. It never stops there. You should be deeply concerned about this, regardless … Continue reading “One month from today, the UK reintroduces censorship. Here’s why you should be on the barricades.”

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Crazy new Swedish bill makes sharing music and TV as bad a “crime” as manslaughter (yes, really)

A new crazy bill in front of the Swedish parliament makes ordinary sharing of TV, music, and movies as severe a “crime” as some types of homicide. The Swedish IT industry and net community is in shock and disbelief, while the copyright industry lobbyists are cheering. A new bill has been tabled in Sweden that … Continue reading “Crazy new Swedish bill makes sharing music and TV as bad a “crime” as manslaughter (yes, really)”

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Canada Bill C-59 Claims to Correct Privacy Abuses — It Actually Makes Them Much Worse

Canadian civil liberties advocates are sounding the alarm over government Bill C-59, a legislative act that purportedly corrects past intelligence-gathering and cyber-operations abuses but in actuality does quite the opposite. C-59 was originally introduced to address criticisms of the infamous Bill C-51, better known as the Anti-terrorism Act, which gave intelligence agencies broad powers but … Continue reading “Canada Bill C-59 Claims to Correct Privacy Abuses — It Actually Makes Them Much Worse”

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  • Feb 5, 2018 |
  • Glyn Moody |
  • Governments, News, Privacy, Programming, Security,

The real Strava heatmap story is not threats to national security, but about privacy and de-anonymization

At the end of January, Nathan Ruser posted a tweet about Strava, a Website and mobile app used to track athletic activity via GPS coordinates. It concerned Strava’s global heatmap: “the largest, richest, and most beautiful dataset of its kind. It is a visualization of Strava’s global network of athletes,” as the company puts it. … Continue reading “The real Strava heatmap story is not threats to national security, but about privacy and de-anonymization”

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UK Court Delivers Blow to Mass Surveillance State, Win for Privacy Advocates

A UK court has dealt a winning hand to privacy advocates — and a blow to the mass surveillance state — through its ruling on the controversial Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Act (DRIPA). The ruling, which was issued by three appellate judges, said that DRIPA was “inconsistent with EU law” because it failed to … Continue reading “UK Court Delivers Blow to Mass Surveillance State, Win for Privacy Advocates”

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  • Jan 22, 2018 |
  • PIA Team |
  • Announcements, Governments, News,

We Are Removing Our South Korea Presence

On the 21st January 2018 at 6.15pm Pacific Time, Private Internet Access was alerted by close contacts in South Korea that law enforcement would be seeking to mirror our servers tomorrow, 24th of January 2018, at 10:00 A.M without due process. Upon learning this information, we decided to remove and wipe the South Korea region … Continue reading “We Are Removing Our South Korea Presence”

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  • Dec 14, 2017 |
  • Caleb Chen |
  • Governments, Net Neutrality, News,

The FCC votes 3-2 for net neutrality repeal

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) just voted 3-2, along party lines, to repeal Net Neutrality. The Open Internet Order of 2015 is no more – the online privacy and net neutrality protections gained by American citizens during the Obama Administration are now all gone. The FCC will no longer be responsible for policing net neutrality … Continue reading “The FCC votes 3-2 for net neutrality repeal”

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Once again: Privacy promises from a company are worth nothing, because companies can’t promise anything

In the last post, I recalled that the only thing that matter whether data collection is taking place is whether it's technically possible, and that if you carry an electronic sensor, you must assume it to be active. Here's why it doesn't matter one bit if the sensor was made with "good guys" with exemplary … Continue reading “Once again: Privacy promises from a company are worth nothing, because companies can’t promise anything”

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Net Neutrality is necessary regulation as a short-term emergency fix to previous bad regulation

Net Neutrality is a huge topic, again. But it’s important to realize that Net Neutrality is mostly being discussed in the United States — not because it is ahead, but because it is behind. In countries where fiber is the norm to households and they typically have 15-20 ISPs to choose from, Net Neutrality is … Continue reading “Net Neutrality is necessary regulation as a short-term emergency fix to previous bad regulation”

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