{"id":1081,"date":"2014-07-31T06:38:22","date_gmt":"2014-07-31T06:38:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/?p=1081"},"modified":"2020-08-26T15:17:21","modified_gmt":"2020-08-26T22:17:21","slug":"when-privacy-of-information-transport-was-attacked-70-years-ago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/when-privacy-of-information-transport-was-attacked-70-years-ago\/","title":{"rendered":"When Privacy Of Information Transport Was Attacked 70 Years Ago"},"content":{"rendered":"

The privacy of how you receive information is just as sensitive, and just as fragile, as the information itself. This may seem counterintuitive, but there are several examples to prove it. Let\u2019s learn a little from history.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Since a couple of centuries back, we have something called the Freedom of the Press in the Western world. Nobody can really prevent you from printing news and other information that you believe to be true, described from your own angle, and distribute it. At least, that\u2019s been the idea.<\/p>\n

For as long as there has been this Freedom of Press, those in its crosshairs \u2013 various forms of powerholders \u2013 have tried to suppress it. A famous quote by George Orwell, the author of 1984,<\/em> points out that \u201cjournalism is printing what someone else does not want printed; everything else is PR.\u201d Therefore, powerholders have used everything and anything in their power to attack and suppress this brittle Freedom of Press.<\/p>\n

For example, we recently learned<\/a>, courtesy of Wikileaks, that an Australian court has banned not just all reporting on a particular multi-country corruption, but also on the gag order itself \u2013 a so-called \u201csuperinjunction\u201d. This is a fairly new phenomenon. But most times, the freedom to report on news isn\u2019t attacked directly \u2013 as the Wikileaks example shows, secrets are hard to contain, and once news is out of the gag order, those not bound by it will report all and everything about it.<\/p>\n

So let\u2019s look at a time from World War 2 instead. During that time in Sweden, a particular brand of socialism was considered so dangerous to society, that powerholders really really really<\/em> didn\u2019t want their newspapers to be read. But Freedom of Press was in the Constitution \u2013 they could not legally ban the newspapers from being printed. So what they did instead was to attack the transport<\/em> of the newspapers.<\/p>\n

In a newly made-up law to get around Freedom of the Press, they banned public transport (trains) from being used to distribute certain named newspapers. This was intended to make it impossible for those newspapers to get distributed at all, and therefore, prevent dangerous ideas from taking hold and prevent embarrassing news from coming out. What happened instead was that volunteers organized to distribute the newspapers by other means, so the ban on transporting information wasn\u2019t particularly effective.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a lot to learn here, because this is repeating today. You can\u2019t really separate the privacy of information itself from the privacy of its transport, to begin with. No information is safer or more secure than its means to reach you. This is exactly what\u2019s happening on and with the Internet, right now, today.<\/p>\n

So what happened with that particular attack on Freedom of the Press? As a result of what politicians learned of their own abuse of power, they made new laws, saying that a distributor is required to distribute newspapers even if the newspapers were obviously illegal<\/em>. That\u2019s a very strong \u2013 not to say extreme \u2013 legal language, and a very strong protection: the word \u201cobvious\u201d is a very high bar to meet, and even then,<\/em> the distributors are required to keep distributing. We\u2019re not there for the Internet yet, with laws requiring ISP to distribute all content equally even if it\u2019s obviously illegal. Hopefully we\u2019ll get there; right now, we\u2019re instead going in the opposite direction, with various courts deciding that vested interests have a right to prevent things they don\u2019t like being distributed. History does repeat itself.<\/p>\n

Privacy remains your own responsibility.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The privacy of how you receive information is just as sensitive, and just as fragile, as the information itself. This may seem counterintuitive, but there are several examples to prove it. Let\u2019s learn a little from history. Since a couple of centuries back, we have something called the Freedom of the Press in the Western … Continue reading “When Privacy Of Information Transport Was Attacked 70 Years Ago”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nWhen Privacy Of Information Transport Was Attacked 70 Years Ago<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The privacy of how you receive information is just as sensitive, and just as fragile, as the information itself. This may seem counterintuitive, but there\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/when-privacy-of-information-transport-was-attacked-70-years-ago\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"When Privacy Of Information Transport Was Attacked 70 Years Ago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The privacy of how you receive information is just as sensitive, and just as fragile, as the information itself. This may seem counterintuitive, but there\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/when-privacy-of-information-transport-was-attacked-70-years-ago\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"PIA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/privateinternetaccess\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-07-31T06:38:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-08-26T22:17:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/ogimage.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Rick Falkvinge\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@http:\/\/twitter.com\/Falkvinge\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@buyvpnservice\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Rick Falkvinge\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/when-privacy-of-information-transport-was-attacked-70-years-ago\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/when-privacy-of-information-transport-was-attacked-70-years-ago\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Rick Falkvinge\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/8153559f44e1b6f9738dd6c7d33046a4\"},\"headline\":\"When Privacy Of Information Transport Was Attacked 70 Years Ago\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-07-31T06:38:22+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-08-26T22:17:21+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/when-privacy-of-information-transport-was-attacked-70-years-ago\/\"},\"wordCount\":597,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"General Privacy News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/when-privacy-of-information-transport-was-attacked-70-years-ago\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/when-privacy-of-information-transport-was-attacked-70-years-ago\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/when-privacy-of-information-transport-was-attacked-70-years-ago\/\",\"name\":\"When Privacy Of Information Transport Was Attacked 70 Years Ago\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-07-31T06:38:22+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-08-26T22:17:21+00:00\",\"description\":\"The privacy of how you receive information is just as sensitive, and just as fragile, as the information itself. This may seem counterintuitive, but there\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/when-privacy-of-information-transport-was-attacked-70-years-ago\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/when-privacy-of-information-transport-was-attacked-70-years-ago\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/when-privacy-of-information-transport-was-attacked-70-years-ago\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"When Privacy Of Information Transport Was Attacked 70 Years Ago\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"PIA\",\"description\":\"Online privacy news from around the world.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Private Internet Access\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/pialogowhitekglogo.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/pialogowhitekglogo.png\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":1200,\"caption\":\"Private Internet Access\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/privateinternetaccess\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/buyvpnservice\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/piavpn\/\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UClyJZ47Rizb1xnwuKXDI0_w\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/8153559f44e1b6f9738dd6c7d33046a4\",\"name\":\"Rick Falkvinge\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ad30e41b6591c75d90c6002e54553bdd55f419d89a54b72241efa308b84a7f03?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ad30e41b6591c75d90c6002e54553bdd55f419d89a54b72241efa308b84a7f03?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Rick Falkvinge\"},\"description\":\"Rick is the founder of the first Pirate Party and is a political evangelist, traveling around Europe and the world to talk and write about ideas of a sensible information policy. Additionally, he has a tech entrepreneur background and loves good whisky and fast motorcycles.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/falkvinge.net\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/http:\/\/twitter.com\/Falkvinge\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/author\/rick\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"When Privacy Of Information Transport Was Attacked 70 Years Ago","description":"The privacy of how you receive information is just as sensitive, and just as fragile, as the information itself. This may seem counterintuitive, but there","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/when-privacy-of-information-transport-was-attacked-70-years-ago\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"When Privacy Of Information Transport Was Attacked 70 Years Ago","og_description":"The privacy of how you receive information is just as sensitive, and just as fragile, as the information itself. This may seem counterintuitive, but there","og_url":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/when-privacy-of-information-transport-was-attacked-70-years-ago\/","og_site_name":"PIA","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/privateinternetaccess\/","article_published_time":"2014-07-31T06:38:22+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-08-26T22:17:21+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":630,"url":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/ogimage.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Rick Falkvinge","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@http:\/\/twitter.com\/Falkvinge","twitter_site":"@buyvpnservice","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Rick Falkvinge","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/when-privacy-of-information-transport-was-attacked-70-years-ago\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/when-privacy-of-information-transport-was-attacked-70-years-ago\/"},"author":{"name":"Rick Falkvinge","@id":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/8153559f44e1b6f9738dd6c7d33046a4"},"headline":"When Privacy Of Information Transport Was Attacked 70 Years Ago","datePublished":"2014-07-31T06:38:22+00:00","dateModified":"2020-08-26T22:17:21+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/when-privacy-of-information-transport-was-attacked-70-years-ago\/"},"wordCount":597,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/#organization"},"articleSection":["General Privacy News"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/when-privacy-of-information-transport-was-attacked-70-years-ago\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/when-privacy-of-information-transport-was-attacked-70-years-ago\/","url":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/when-privacy-of-information-transport-was-attacked-70-years-ago\/","name":"When Privacy Of Information Transport Was Attacked 70 Years Ago","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-07-31T06:38:22+00:00","dateModified":"2020-08-26T22:17:21+00:00","description":"The privacy of how you receive information is just as sensitive, and just as fragile, as the information itself. This may seem counterintuitive, but there","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/when-privacy-of-information-transport-was-attacked-70-years-ago\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/when-privacy-of-information-transport-was-attacked-70-years-ago\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/when-privacy-of-information-transport-was-attacked-70-years-ago\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"When Privacy Of Information Transport Was Attacked 70 Years Ago"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/","name":"PIA","description":"Online privacy news from around the world.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"Private Internet Access","url":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/pialogowhitekglogo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/pialogowhitekglogo.png","width":1200,"height":1200,"caption":"Private Internet Access"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/privateinternetaccess\/","https:\/\/x.com\/buyvpnservice","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/piavpn\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UClyJZ47Rizb1xnwuKXDI0_w"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/8153559f44e1b6f9738dd6c7d33046a4","name":"Rick Falkvinge","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ad30e41b6591c75d90c6002e54553bdd55f419d89a54b72241efa308b84a7f03?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ad30e41b6591c75d90c6002e54553bdd55f419d89a54b72241efa308b84a7f03?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Rick Falkvinge"},"description":"Rick is the founder of the first Pirate Party and is a political evangelist, traveling around Europe and the world to talk and write about ideas of a sensible information policy. Additionally, he has a tech entrepreneur background and loves good whisky and fast motorcycles.","sameAs":["https:\/\/falkvinge.net\/","https:\/\/x.com\/http:\/\/twitter.com\/Falkvinge"],"url":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/author\/rick\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1081"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1081\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1085,"href":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1081\/revisions\/1085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}