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“On the internet, no one knows that you are a dog” was true for 1993 when it was published as a cartoon by the New Yorker. The world is different now. We have conceded a lot of ground about our identity to companies online and in exchange we get content and services for free. But with nation states starting to track our personal information, the issue of online privacy has become a crisis. The law enforcement authorities are not asking our permission, nor are they even bothering to warn us that all our communication is bugged. Their objective is to know what we are thinking, then to classify us as a bad guy or a good guy, and to prosecute those that fall on the wrong side of their definition if they so choose to.

Of the three largest countries on the internet, China (550Mn Internet users) seems to be running the most honest system – they are upfront about online surveillance and censorship. USA (250Mn Internet users) has been collecting Meta data of users for a while through NSA. India (150Mn Internet users) however takes the cake – after the $150 Mn implementation of Centralized Monitoring System (CMS) is complete, Indian government will be able to tap into online, mobile and SMS conversations of its citizens in real time. All this is being done in the name of saving people from the terrorists – who probably shifted to the more secure communications a long time ago. The real losers are the normal people, who are living under the illusion that giving up their privacy somehow protects them.

The most common defence for such private intrusion is to aske ‘the’ question So what do you really have to hide? A record of your chance encounter in your past with someone who in future commits a crime could convict you. Just being at the wrong place at the wrong time and on record could erase a lifetime of good work. Your innocent affiliation to a group could tomorrow come back to haunt you if the regime or the thought process changes or that ideology goes out of fashion. Your past can be assembled to form any narrative against you. Even general Meta data about your online behaviour can be used against you. General Petraeus affair got discovered merely by cross-tagging IP logins with hotel check-ins and few such meta-data markers. If the director of CIA isn’t safe, you are a just a roadkill. Here is a paper that talks about how simple metadata about you can implicate you in ways you cant imagine.

The current crises of the internet is stemming from the fact that until now everyone operated with the assumption that it is their private house, and someone will atleast ask their permission to enter it. It turns out USA government through NSA has been tracking all the traffic that passes through the servers in USA, and even been tracking political leaders across the world. Edward Snowden’s revelations have embarrassed USA by catching it in the act of peeping into private spaces and listening to private conversations of its citizens. This behaviour is no different than of any autocratic state that persecutes its own citizens.

The loss of privacy has big consequences on the direction internet evolution will take. The real potency of internet is due to disembodying of voice from the person. Because of this anonymity, internet resonates with the true feelings of people – feelings not encumbered by external forces, or morals, or norms, or oppressive laws. People have been able to act together beyond the bounds of geography, law, society to start revolutions and to take on the more powerful forces. This has created world transforming ideas – both for good and evil. In this relative anonymity, they have felt free to explore all sides of themselves – the sublime to the grotesque and use the internet to shine a light on it. In this wilderness, piracy has thrived and so has open source; Porn has thrived, and so has the long tail of niche interests. With anonymity, the small and the weak can shout as loudly as the more powerful. Internet thus has become a great leveller – with those in power having most to lose.

But the old-world corporations and governments are threatened by online freedom. The real world inefficiencies which allowed traditional corporations to be relevant, have been rapidly disappearing. Traditionalmiddlemen have lesser role to play now – music labels, publishing houses, distributors, are dying. IP rights and laws created in the real world make no sense in the online world. Governments are unable to control the flow of information anymore– however embarrassing it may be. People are forcing more accountability on their leaders, who till now have never been put to such public scrutiny. But when the surveillance is turned on, everything changes. The real world constraints creeps onto the virtual and we become polite and self conscious and vulnerable to the more powerful. What was a free cultural space owned by people, now gets taken over by the larger organizations and turned into a commercial space. The small guy loses his voice.

While there is a rising backlash against the online surveillance, but I am not so hopeful of the nation states back-tracking on this issue. This wild online beast will get tamed and de-fanged by the time the internet reaches the remaining 5 Bn people on earth. It is time to start operating with the assumption that we are all in a public space on the internet, and everything online is under intense surveillance. For those who want to put up some resistance, its time to explore duckduckgo.com, VPNs, and Tor networks – for as long as they last. Here is wishing more power to the Darknet.