Google are not big fans of anonymity

I have to admit I choked on my morning coffee when I read this eerie article on Google CEO Eric Schmidt's views on privacy and anonymity.

I mean, what the hell? Is this Schmidt guy some DDR era reject who fled to the US after the fall of the Berlin wall? His thoughts sure are very similar to those of the DDR regime.

"Privacy is incredibly important," Schmidt stated. "Privacy is not the same thing as anonymity. It's very important that Google and everyone else respects people's privacy. People have a right to privacy; it's natural; it's normal. It's the right way to do things. But if you are trying to commit a terrible, evil crime, it's not obvious that you should be able to do so with complete anonymity. There are no systems in our society which allow you to do that. Judges insist on unmasking who the perpetrator was. So absolute anonymity could lead to some very difficult decisions for our governments and our society as a whole."

And my favorite part:

According to ReadWriteWeb, Schmidt said of anti-social behavior, "The only way to manage this is true transparency and no anonymity. In a world of asynchronous threats, it is too dangerous for there not to be some way to identify you. We need a [verified] name service for people. Governments will demand it."

In other words bye bye freedom of speech, hello self-censorship and thought control. And Google are not about to stand up for people's rights, it seems, which is really scary considering the amount of data this guys have collected on practically every Internet user in the world. Whatever happened to that "don't be evil" catchphrase?

I guess the first thing you could do to protect yourself against Google is installing the GoogleSharing Firefox plugin, which will prevent Google from tracking your searches and what websites you visit. And if you need to open a Google account I would seriously consider using some kind of anonymization software when logged on to that, so it can't be traced to your regular IP address. Of course you'll have to remember to always run the anonymization software whenever logging into the Google account. I'm no Internet security expert, but those seem like two good starting points.

Photo: Mikey G Ottawa

Another lesson in irony

The Swedish movie industry has the nerve to accuse food company Dole of being a threat to the freedom of speech, following a lawsuit where Dole want's to prevent the movie "Bananas!" from being shown. Isn't that cute. The big bully pushing around all the smaller kids in the schoolyard gets pushed back and runs crying to the principle's office.

Oh well, I guess freedom of speech was a good idea after all?

The mafiaa wants you!

Wanna join the axis of evil and become the mafiaa's unscrupulous hired hand? Do you get turned on by the power of ruining ordinary people's lives? Would you sell your grandmother if paid enough? Are you a sworn enemy of the Internet, free speech, civil liberties and the constitution?

Then boy have I got the job for you. The weasels at Danowsky & Partners are looking for a legal practitioner, so here's your chance to sell your soul for what I can only assume has to be a shitload of money:

Danowsky & Partners är en advokatbyrå med inriktning på affärsjuridik och processer. Vi strävar efter att lämna en rak, enkel och resultatorienterad rådgivning i komplicerade affärsjuridiska frågor och processer. Det sker genom personlig omsorg, lyhördhet för klienternas intressen och ett starkt engagemang i varje ärende.

För tillträde under hösten söker vi nu ytterligare biträdande jurister med tingsmeritering eller motsvarande erfarenhet. Även du som har några års ytterligare erfarenhet från annan advokatbyrå är givetvis välkommen att söka. Vi ställer höga krav men erbjuder samtidigt varierande och utmanande arbetsuppgifter, bra utvecklingsmöjligheter och attraktiva villkor.

Ring gärna advokat Ann Nilsson på tel 08-614 64 00 eller gå in på vår hemsida, www.danowsky.se om du vill veta mer. Ansökan med kopior på sedvanliga betyg och intyg skickas så snart som möjligt och senast den 18 september till emma.hjartberg@danowsky.se. Det går också bra att skicka ansökan per post till Danowsky & Partners, Box 16097, 103 22 Stockholm.

And for those of you who are not familiar with the Swedish language, let me give you a quick translation:

Danowsky & Partners is a law firm specializing in blackmailing, harassment and threats. We strive to squeeze the most money out of our opponents in any way possible, with no regard to ethics or moral. We are proud of our excellent connections within the Government, the police and the courts of law that make it possible for us to tailor new laws to suit us and our clients, and also lets us adapt or ignore the existing laws, all to our advantage, when needed. This way we can guarantee you that we never lose a case. Ever.

We are looking for a legal practitioner to join our firm this fall. Our expectations of you are high, but at the same time we can offer you a high salary and a wide range of challenging tasks, including extortion, badgering, gagging the freedom of speech and dismantling the Internet at any cost.

Disclaimer: This translation may not be correct to the letter, but I think it captures the essence of the ad pretty well. So, what are you waiting for? Send them your resume today and embark on a long and successful career of tyranny and terror.

Congratulations, France!

I guess congratulations are in order, as the French prove that they've got by far the dumbest collection of politicians in the EU, quite possibly in the whole, wide world. Now that's quite an achievement considering all the stupidity out there.

The frogs have just managed to pass an Act so ridiculous, so bizarre, so outrageous that it is bound to go down in the history books. The "Hadopi-law" (yes, it's just as silly as the name implies) gives the government legal rights to terminate a users internet access based on mere allegations that his or her ip-address has been used to perform copyright infringements (yes, exactly, just copyright infringements, not acts of terrorism!). Why bother proving a copyright infringement has taken place? Why bother proving that the owner of the internet subscription was in fact the person performing this alleged infringement? Oh, and of course, why bother the court of law with all this when the government can take matters into its own hands, and terminate internet access on suspicion, taking the opportunity to terminate access for "unpleasant" people who don't share the government's views, and maybe even dare to blog about it ("nöt föör löööng, ju döön't!").

From an integrity, privacy, free speech and legal point of view this law is a complete disaster, of course. It promotes a massive surveillance and censorship, and it bypasses all judicial authority. To be quite honest, it sounds like president Nicolas Sarkozy is aiming for the big league now, with the likes of Fidel Castro, Kim Jong-il and the CPC, to mention a few.

The question now is: To what lengths will the French go in order to enforce this law? Will every French computer be fitted with a piece of spyware controlled by the government, in order to keep track of those who are banned from internet access, and make sure nothing illegal or government unfriendly is distributed in any way? If so, how do these dumb, French bastards intend to deal with Wi-Fi hotspots and internet cafés? Shut them all down, I presume? And if a friend provides a banned individual (or "non-person", as George Orwell calls them in his "1984" novel) with internet access through his own network, will he also be banned?