If you’ve ever done anything that you don’t want to share with the world then you should be concerned.

Our sensitive private data is being collected and analyzed by government authorities on an industrial scale. Out-of-control spy agencies like Canada’s CSEC and the U.S. NSA don’t care if you’re a law-abiding citizen. They’ll collect your information anyway, to be stored in enormous databases that are vulnerable to cyber criminals and identity thieves.

Believe all this more rightly belongs in the realm of spy fiction than reality? I agree. Sadly our government really is engaged in mass surveillance of private citizens. The information they are collecting can be used to track everything from our personal relationships, to our religious beliefs, political affiliations, sexual orientation, financial status and medical conditions.

Spy agencies claim they don’t spy on their own citizens, but these assertions have been exposed as a tissue of lies. The CBC recently revealed how CSEC monitored the Internet activities and tracked the precise locations of thousands of law-abiding Canadian air travellers for weeks. If that’s not illegal it should be, and if CSEC lacks the moral compass to know tracking Canadians is wrong, then they obviously need to be reined in.

The government is abusing a loophole in the law to get at our private lives. Authorities are supposed to get a warrant to obtain our information, but they can avoid the warrant process entirely if a telecom provider voluntarily hands over our information, as happened over 784,756 times in just a one year period.

Justice Minister Peter MacKay is about to make this loophole much bigger. The online spying Bill C-13 Mackay is ramming through parliament will provide spying immunity to telecoms that provide direct access to databases of sensitive subscriber information. And here’s the kicker -- you’re paying for this expanded spying. The government is slated to spend over $4 billion on a lavish CSEC “spy palace” that will be the most expensive government building in Canadian history.

In the eyes of many of its supporters, the Conservative party has lost its way. By expanding government spying, the Conservatives are alienating the majority of Canadians and a huge swathe of their own base. A recent poll revealed that millions of Conservative voters believe mass surveillance is unacceptable.

Look at the Conservative grassroots’ opposition to having private information stored in the long gun registry. Now look at how the government is building new databases packed with private information on everything from our financial status to, yes indeed, gun ownership.

When Vic Toews and the government tried to push through an online spying bill in 2012 the opposition was strongest in the Tory heartland of Alberta. Many Conservative MPs must be having similar qualms about Peter MacKay’s Bill C-13 - let’s hope they find the courage to stand up.

It’s no surprise then that libertarian and conservative-leaning groups like Free Dominion, the Canadian Constitution Foundation, and the Canadian Taxpayers Federation are speaking out. No matter where you sit on the political spectrum, nobody wants a government bureaucrat watching over their shoulder at everything they do online. This isn’t about right and left, it’s about right and wrong.

Thankfully, millions of people around the world are fighting back. Just weeks ago, over 850,000 citizens took part in a day of action against secret spying. Events were held on five continents - from Ireland to India, Canada to South Africa. Incredibly, over 37 million people were reached by our campaign on just a single day.

Here in Canada, OpenMedia.ca and over 50 major organizations from across the political spectrum have formed the OurPrivacy.ca Coalition. With support from tens of thousands of Canadians, we’re determined to stop invasive out-of-control spying by winning effective legal measures to protect our privacy.

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Government dragnet spying is a threat to our freedoms but it’s more fundamental than that. Privacy is an essential pillar of democracy. When people know they are being spied on, their behaviour changes - they’re less likely to speak freely and less likely to exercise their democratic rights. Dragnet spying on innocent citizens is censorship, and it has no place in a free society.