We talk about NSA the Snowden leaks, the PRISM project and all the unregulated collection of data by the US government. However, the situation of Sri Lanka is no different as I came across this Tweet by @GehanDG.
Why government want such an access in the first place?
It’s because the Sri Lankan government is worried like many other governments about online activism and the freedom of speech that the internet gives to the public and not to forget the anonymity.
The anonymity is the best thing the internet gives to the public. No one has to worry whether they will be put on trial for what they write and what they say on the internet as there is no way the government can find out about you.
Also the wide audience the internet provide, with the development of social media single person has the power to reach thousands of people out there and the government has no power to restrict what they are going to say.
And whether it’s the US government or Sri Lankan government, they are willing to do anything in their power to collect information about the user/activists and what they are saying/communicating.
Power and law != Ability
Although the government has the power to wiretap does not mean that they can read your messages or track you down. It is not easy as wiretapping and listening to your phone calls or reading your SMS messages.
Websites and apps use technologies to minimise these “man in the middle interruptions” by using various security measures. Like using https protocol for communication, end to end encryption methods are few that websites apps use and users have the ability to use Tor browser to hide their online identity.
Also just because the law say so Sri Lankan government doesn’t have the ability like the NSA to directly gain access to main servers of web companies and read the data on them.
Also when it comes to human capacity I’ve a huge doubt whether the government has the talent to build such a data collecting, decrypting, intercepting capability. There were various news articles that comes up from time to time, looking at major events that are happening from time to time it is very unlikely that Sri Lankan government process such capability.
It’s far cheaper for the government to break the law and hack into individuals and their targets using various methods. That was why the government has tried to hire hackers like the “Hacking team” to hack into their targets and gather informations. This is there in leaked email communications between the Sri Lankan government and the “Hacking team” which is searchable on WikiLeaks.
Also it is a popular saying amongst the IT community how hackers who get caught by the computer crimes division end up getting jobs within the government where they can lend their hacking capabilities for the government.
Do we have to worry?
Yes we do have to worry, just because the government can’t read your communications doesn’t mean you’re safe. They have access to your browsing histories which can be collected by the ISPs, your SMS communications and all the communications that occur using http protocol with the internet.
And it’s also morally wrong thing to do, having unlimited powers to wiretap anyone the government wish to wiretap without any court order.
Also as someone who is experiencing invasion of privacy and monitoring of our online activities within the university that I study it’s not hard to imagine the feeling one will get when they know that they are being watched by the government.
The best way is to protect your privacy online at all times and always stay informed about how to stay save online.
