More than 500 high-profile names, including authors, musicians and five Nobel laureates, have signed a petition to the United Nations calling for a bill of digital rights to be developed in the wake of this year’s revelations about state surveillance.
50 days after former NSA employee Edward Snowden introduced the general public to a secretly flourishing surveillance culture, some Facebook accounts may have been cancelled or email providers changed, but a vast majority seems busy getting used to the omnipresence of global surveillance.
To some it looks like a throwback to another era – a Western-dominated economic club keen to ensure that “they’re all right Jack”. But in a world of BRICS, shifting political alliances and global financial uncertainty, hasn’t the G8 had its day?
The UK’s digital spying and eavesdropping agency GCHQ are due to report to MPs “within days” over claims that it was involved in gathering intelligence on British citizens from internet companies such as Google, Facebook, and Apple along with the US National Security Agency as part of its PRISM operation.