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<p style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:0px; -qt-user-state:0;">I don’t know if any of you you have been following the the NSA surveillance scandal, but in case you’ve been living under a rock, the government is essentially tracking most everything you do electronically. It taps into US-based companies for information, and they’re legally compelled to comply.</p>
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<p style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:0px; -qt-user-state:0;">The program they use to obtain this information is called PRISM. Some of PRISM’s primary sources of information include Google, Facebook, Apple, and Microsoft. You can see the leaked PowerPoint slides here: <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/politics/prism-collection-documents/"><span style=" font-style:italic; text-decoration: underline; color:#006e28;">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/politics/prism-collection-documents/</span></a></p>
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<p style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:0px; -qt-user-state:0;">I’m a proud member of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to defending digital rights. I don’t believe in shrugging my shoulders and saying “I have nothing to hide” or “oh well” in situations like this. PRISM is an egregious incursion on people’s privacy; personal information should be shared by consent, not force.</p>
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<p style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:0px; -qt-user-state:0;">(Unless there’s legitimate reason to suspect that someone is a criminal. That’s not what is happening, though; for instance, the feds have been harvesting the call logs of every single Verizon Wireless customer. According to NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, the NSA can wiretap anyone at any time.)</p>
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<p style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:0px; -qt-user-state:0;">Fortunately, there is open source software that protects confidential information. I think it would be fun to have a “tin foil hat” GUM in July where we go over some of the programs listed at <a href="http://prism-break.org"><span style=" text-decoration: underline; color:#006e28;">Prism-Break.org</span></a>, and talk about privacy-related services like VPNs and Tor.</p>
<p style="-qt-paragraph-type:empty; margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:0px; "> </p>
<p style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:0px; -qt-user-state:0;">Whether or not you agree with my assessment of the NSA scandal, I guarantee that you have confidential information: embarrassing photos, business documents, personal records, and so on. Do you know how to protect it? </p>
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<p style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:0px; -qt-user-state:0;">Or maybe there’s important information that you need to access. Do you know how to bypass Internet censorship or circumvent regional restrictions on streaming content?</p>
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<p style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:0px; -qt-user-state:0;">Let me know what you think.</p>
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<p style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:0px; -qt-user-state:0;">--</p>
<p style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:0px; -qt-user-state:0;"><span style=" font-weight:600;">Justin S. Smith</span></p>
<p style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:0px; -qt-user-state:0;"><span style=" color:#808080;">Vice chair/secretary, WPLUG Board of Directors</span></p>
<p style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:0px; -qt-user-state:0;"><a href="http://www.wplug.org"><span style=" text-decoration: underline; color:#006e28;">http://www.wplug.org</span></a> </p>
<p style="-qt-paragraph-type:empty; margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:0px; "> </p>
<p style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:0px; -qt-user-state:0;"><span style=" color:#808080;">"Intelligence is the ability to avoid doing work, yet getting the work done."</span></p>
<p style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:0px; -qt-user-state:0;"><span style=" color:#808080;">-Linus Torvalds</span></p></body></html>