Last year I decided to abandon third-party Internet services such as GMail, Google Calendar, and even WordPress.com. Everything now sits securely on a server in my apartment where I maintain the exclusive right to access it. Why would I go through the trouble of maintaining my own server when there are many great free service providers out there? Because things have gotten to the point that you can’t trust anybody to maintain your secrecy:
he FBI is asking Internet companies not to oppose a controversial proposal that would require firms, including Microsoft, Facebook, Yahoo, and Google, to build in backdoors for government surveillance.
In meetings with industry representatives, the White House, and U.S. senators, senior FBI officials argue the dramatic shift in communication from the telephone system to the Internet has made it far more difficult for agents to wiretap Americans suspected of illegal activities, CNET has learned.
The FBI general counsel’s office has drafted a proposed law that the bureau claims is the best solution: requiring that social-networking Web sites and providers of VoIP, instant messaging, and Web e-mail alter their code to ensure their products are wiretap-friendly.
As the police state ramps up it’s going to be harder and harder to know your data is secure on servers you don’t directly control. Most people probably don’t care because they feel as though they have nothing to hide but the golden rule of backdoors is that anybody can use them. If there is a backdoor one need only discover how to access it, which is why most manufacturers don’t like putting backdoors into their software. There is also the fact that the state doesn’t need to know what I’m doing, if they want to know they can get a fucking warrant.
If you don’t believe the United States is a police state you’re not paying attention.