Internet users take privacy into their own hands

The (UK) police and intelligence services are calling on the Government to drop plans to disconnect persistent internet pirates because they fear that this would make it harder to track criminals online
Source: The Times via ORG

If evidence from Sweden is anything to go by it could soon be the case that that horse has bolted. Torrent Freak report on an article ths week in Dagens Nyheter (in swedsh) on the rapid growth of 'anonymising' services - mostly the use of  'virtual private networks' (VPNs) to hide a user's IP address.  A survey of 15-25 year olds found that an estimated 130 000 users in this age group are already using privacy services to surf online.  The survey authors estimated that as much a 6 or 7% of the populaton at large could be doing the same - and the survey also showed that up to 55% surveyed intend to use this type of service if  laws against filesharing are strengthened.

There are many reasons for wanting privacy in your communications - and users don't need to justify why they want privacy - it is a right.  Equally clearly, when users see that government is not protectig their rights they will take the ball into their own court at take steps to protect it themselves.

So if you are not doing it already...  what's it all about?
Using a VPN provides an encrypted secure connection from your PC to a server on the net - at which point the IP address you got from your internet service provider is changed for another anonymous one.  Which means.

• Your ISP can't see where you surf - or what type of traffic they are carrying for you -surfing, VOIP, filetransfers - all look the same - encrypted...
• Unless you register on sites you are anonymous when you surf. (Most sites collect the IP addresses of people using the site).
• You get safer surfing from WiFi hotspots and on your home wireless LAN. Encryption means your traffic can't be read 'off air' - to e.g to snoop or hack passwords.
• VPNs can usually be used from within firewalls - letting you surf to sites that might otherwise be blocked.
• If you choose a supplier from another country you will appear to be surfng from that country.... useful if you regularly use sites that restrict content depending on where you are.  (Some suppliers give the option to switch)
• and it only costs around £5/50kr a month..

Finding a supplier is easy.  Searching for Anonymous surf VPN gives lots of hits.  Here is a very small selection... (but you need to find one that suites you)
UK                  UKiVPN
Sweden          VPNtunnel.se      Relakks
or for a bit of everything....  Hide My Ass

You might want to check

• what encryption do they use?
• where are they based?
• is my account or payment traceable back to me?
• underwhat circumstances can they be obliged to release data to authorities?
• what data do they store that they could be asked to hand over?

Privacy is your right

Piratpartiet and The Pirate Party -  Putting privacy first.

A trillion tons: The clock is ticking...

Continuing the theme of BIG numbers -  Climate Feedback has links to a new site giving an estimate of the cumulative carbon dioxide emissions over the last 250 years (now somewhere past 530 000 000 000 000 tonnes)- and predicting when this figure will exceed 1 trillion tonnes - a limit calculated to keep average temperature rises below 2 degrees.

The point of course is that we need to see radical change NOW to head off an otherwise inevitable warming of the climate.  Change here meaning global cuts in emissions of between 2.1 and 4.5% per year .    What it doesn't say - but is important to understand - is that the earlier cuts are made the more effective they will be.

What are you doing for your 4.5% cut???

Bad habits, bad government - Fudging the figures

You may remember the fuss about government statistics on piracy being based on adjusted, interpolated figures sourced from industry lobbyists.

Heresy Corner has a super piece on 'Abusing the evidence' (about amongst other things, sex trafficking) that shows that the use of selective statistics to support UK government policy making is endemic.  As the Heresiarch puts it..
"The government has loudly proclaimed its commitment to "evidence-based policy-making" while instead pursuing policy-based evidence making."

Statistics is only evidence if it is honestly presented - and scientifically valid.  Fudging the figures will just lead to bad policy - and bad government.

Do I mean will - or has?

Pirating statistics

The UK government has made much of the impact of piracy on the uk economy - and the scale of the 'problem.' Seven million people are engaged in piracy and they are costing a virtual fortune. (Virtual for as everyone knows one download does not equal one lost sale).

But seven million people?


BBC Radio Four's More or Less programme has been looking into the claim. What they find is reported here... but to cut a long story short, depending on what assumptions you make that 7 million could just as well be 3.9million.

Does that make a difference? Well - it means the government have a good head start on their target to cut piracy 70% for one thing ;-) ... but.... 3,9 million is still a pretty big number.
What does it mean exactly?

If you think of the UK population of 61.4 million it starts to sound like a small slice of society. But think again... there are only 26million households in the UK.. and in 2008 (when the estimate was made) only 16million households had internet access. That's around one pirate for every four households....... (which doesn't quite mean one in four households has a pirate).

Even without seven million to talk about you start to see what a broad slice of the population it is that doesn't accept the establishment view of copyright. And when we start to talk about cutting people off from the internet how many families are potentially affected by that policy.

You could also ponder how many families sit down on a Frday night to watch a film that little Darren has just downloaded... Now how many pirates have you got?!?

The PPUK Facebook group has now passed 6 000 members and continues to grow...

Piratpartiet now has over 50 000 members and is the third largest political party in Sweden.

While in Germany, where there are soon to be new elections, 38.8% of students support Piratpartei - double the support of any of the mainstream parties.

Bloggande på:Piratpartiet,
Also blogging on: Pirate Party,