In the last year, the world has learned that mass surveillance by governments knows no bounds.
Today, 11th February, internet users around the world are standing together. Individuals, civil society organisations, and thousands of websites will let the world’s governments know that we reject global mass surveillance at home and overseas.
Today, we fight back.
People like you will take the streets in protest in the Philippines, Copenhagen, Stockholm and San Francisco. They will call or write to their elected representatives in United Kingdom, Canada, Colombia and Poland. They will hold news conferences or join the online protest in Uganda, Mexico, Brazil and Australia. And they will endorse the Necessary and Proportionate Principles demanding the protection of human rights and an end to mass surveillance.
Mass surveillance violates our fundamental rights
In 2013, documents released by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden exposed dozens of wide-ranging intelligence collection programs underway in countries around the globe. His documents showed that intelligence bodies capture personal information about nearly everyone on the planet.
These mass surveillance programs are in violation of our fundamental human rights. They violate our right to privacy and infringe on our rights to freedom of expression and association. They harm the freedom and openness of the global internet, and erode our democratic values.
IN AUSTRALIA
EFA is part of acoalition of major organisations calling on the Australian government to undertake a comprehensive review of the mass surveillance activities carried out by the Australian security agencies and their Five Eyes partners, and to implement a number of meaningful privacy protections.
A joint press conference will be held at Parliament House in Canberra this morning of (11th February), the first sitting day of the Australian parliament for 2014.
Tonight, EFA will be holding a Speak Out event featuring EFF’s International Director, Danny O’Brien, who will discuss issues relating to mass surveillance around the world.
EFA is also launching the Citizens, Not Suspects campaign to continue the fight against unchecked surveillance.
What can you do right now?
Today, we ask you to join us: Go to necessaryandproportionate.org and sign the Principles. Tell your friends. Share your action on social media. Call your MP or Senator. Go to a protest. Start a movement.
There are events and actions happening all over the world today, and we need you to help us stand up and fight back. Every voice counts in letting governments know: we won’t stand for mass surveillance.
Host TheDayWeFightBack widget: Add the code to your website, so that everyone who visits your site is encouraged to fight back by taking action.
Go to TheDayWeFightBack.org.au to learn more.
Spread the word: Use social media to let your friends and family know they should take action. Share the link to TheDayWeFightBack.org.au website.
Sample tweet:
Millions of global activists speak out: the world works better when the internet works better http://theDayWeFightBack.org.au #daywefightback
Get creative! This moment is whatever we, the broad community of people who care about the Internet, make of it. Post a comment with a link to every NSA-related story. Make and share a meme. Build a website. Organise an event. Then tell us about it so we can spread the word.
This is truly a global movement. From Colombia to South Korea, United Kingdom to Uganda, people are standing up for their fundamental rights.
Some examples of global actions include:
ARGENTINA
Asociación por los Derechos Civiles and Vía Libre Foundation will announce that they are taking the oversight intelligence commission at the Argentinean Congress to the courts. ADC, FVL, and Instituto Latinoamericano de Seguridad y Democracia—a local NGO founder of the Citizens’ Initiative for Control of Intelligence Agencies—has asked for basic information on local intelligence oversight mechanisms at Congress.
BRAZIL
Brazilian legislators are gathering to vote on the Marco Civil, Brazil’s groundbreaking framework on digital rights. Brazilians are organising a meeting in the country’s capital, Brasilia, to demand that the final version protects the privacy rights of Brazilian citizens.
CANADA
More than 45 major organisations, over a dozen academic experts, and tens of thousands of Canadians are calling on their elected representatives to stop illegal spying by Communications Security Establishment Canada, Canada’s spying agency.
COLOMBIA
Colombians will launch the campaign “Internet sin Chuzadas,” calling for the end of unchecked surveillance at home and abroad. They will also launch a video on how online spying works and what they can do to protect themselves against it.
FRANCE
La Quadrature du Net will launch the website NSA Observer, an aggregation of public information about the NSA global surveillance programs, as well a short animation “Reclaim your Privacy” about privacy, mass surveillance, and the urgency to rethink our relationship with technology.
PHILIPPINES
The Philippine Internet Freedom Alliance (PIFA) is organizing a day of mass action against the country’s draconian Cybercrime Prevention Act, including a protest at the Supreme Court, a viral selfie campaign, and a “sticker bombing.”
POLAND
Panoptykon Foundation will send a letter to President Barack Obama demanding answers about the NSA’s massive collection of data and international cooperation between intelligence agencies, which affects Polish citizens as well as all Europeans. Panoptykon Foundation will increase pressure on the Polish government to finish answering 100 questions on surveillance that the coalition of Polish NGOs posed four months ago.
NETHERLANDS
Bits of Freedom will call on Dutch citizens to join The Day We Fight Back and share the campaign to stop mass surveillance: bespiedonsniet.nl (“Don’t Spy On Us”).
SERBIA
SHARE Foundation will once again call upon Internet citizens to take a stand against mass surveillance by signing and supporting the 13 Principles against mass surveillance.
UGANDA
Unwanted Witness is petitioning telecommunications companies to stop sharing citizen data with government agencies and other entities involved in mass surveillance.
UNITED KINGDOM
The UK’s leading privacy and free expression groups are launching the DontSpyOnUs.org.uk campaign, calling for organisations to help stop GCHQ’s mass surveillance programs.
UNITED STATES More than 4,000 websites and companies have committed to hosting TheDayWeFightBack widget on their website. Thousands of people will call and email their congressional representatives, demanding the passage of the USA Freedom Act and the end to mass surveillance.
The Necessary and Proportionate Principles
Over the past year, more than 360 organizations in over 70 countries have come together to support the International Principles on the Application of Human Rights to Communications Surveillance. These thirteen Principles are the backbone of our efforts to end mass surveillance: a clear set of guidelines that establish the human rights obligations of governments that would seek to surveil us.
These Principles were developed through months of consultation with technology, privacy, and human rights experts from around the world. But today, these Principles are about to receive their most important endorsement: the people’s.
The Principles make clear:
- States must recognize that mass surveillance threatens the human right to privacy, freedom of expression, and association, and they must place these Principles at the heart of their communications surveillance legal frameworks.
- States must commit to ensuring that advances in technology do not lead to disproportionate increases in the State’s capacity to interfere with the private lives of individuals.
- Transparency and rigorous adversarial oversight is needed to ensure changes in surveillance activities benefit from public debate and judicial scrutiny, this includes effective protections for whistleblowers.
- Just as modern surveillance transcends borders, so must privacy protections.
SUMMARY OF THE PRINCIPLES
LEGALITY
Limits on the right to privacy must be set out clearly and precisely in laws, and should be regularly reviewed to make sure privacy protections keep up with rapid technological changes.
LEGITIMATE AIM
Communications surveillance should only be permitted in pursuit of the most important state objectives.
NECESSITY
The State has the obligation to prove that its communications surveillance activities are necessary to achieving a legitimate objective.
ADEQUACY
A communications surveillance mechanism must be effective in achieving its legitimate objective.
PROPORTIONALITY
Communications surveillance should be regarded as a highly intrusive act that interferes with the rights to privacy and freedom of opinion and expression, threatening the foundations of a democratic society. Proportionate communications surveillance will typically require prior authorization from a competent judicial authority.
COMPETENT JUDICIAL AUTHORITY
Determinations related to communications surveillance must be made by a competent judicial authority that is impartial and independent.
DUE PROCESS
Due process requires that any interference with human rights is governed by lawful procedures which are publicly available and applied consistently in a fair and public hearing.
USER NOTIFICATION
Individuals should be notified of a decision authorising surveillance of their communications and be
provided an opportunity to challenge such surveillance before it occurs, except in certain exceptional circumstances.
TRANSPARENCY
The government has an obligation to make enough information publicly available so that the general public can understand the scope and nature of its surveillance activities. The government should not generally prevent service providers from publishing details on the scope and nature of their own surveillance-related dealings with State.
PUBLIC OVERSIGHT
States should establish independent oversight mechanisms to ensure transparency and accountability of communications surveillance. Oversight mechanisms should have the authority to access all potentially relevant information about State actions.
INTEGRITY OF COMMUNICATIONS AND SYSTEMS
Service providers or hardware or software vendors should not be compelled to build surveillance capabilities or backdoors into their systems or to collect or retain particular information purely for State surveillance purposes.
SAFEGUARDS FOR INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION
On occasion, States may seek assistance from foreign service providers to conduct surveillance. This must be governed by clear and public agreements that ensure the most privacy-protective standard applicable is relied upon in each instance.
SAFEGUARDS AGAINST ILLEGITIMATE ACCESS
There should be civil and criminal penalties imposed on any party responsible for illegal electronic surveillance and those affected by surveillance must have access to legal mechanisms necessary for effective redress. Strong protection should also be afforded to whistleblowers who expose surveillance activities that threaten human rights.