24C3 - Demonstration against data retention
international |
crime and justice |
news report 
Sunday December 30, 2007 22:13
by Mensch Meier
There´s a new law for data retention in Germany. It passed all hurdles and will come into effect starting from the 1st January 2008. The connection meta data (phone, cell phone, internet) of all citizen of Germany will be stored for six month then. A law suit against this law will be started soon. The AK Vorratsdatenspeicherung organized a demonstration that took place here in Berlin starting in front of the congress center to protest against this and similar laws. There will be more demonstration in the near future.
The 24 Chaos Communication Congress (24C3) the annually hacker meeting organized by the Chaos Computer Club was finished in Berlin. Here you can find lots of inspiring talks, cool workshops and interesting people. Hacking (in the broadest sense), making, privacy and politic issues and many other topics are covered. The theme"Volldampf voraus" (German for "full steam ahead") is inspired by the retrofuture steam punk genre and you can see at some place of the conference related accessories.
http://konradscons.blogspot.com/
First held in 1984, it since has established itself as "the European Hacker Conference". Lectures and workshops on a multitude of topics attract a diverse audience of thousands of hackers, scientists, artists, and utopists from all around the world. The 24C3s slogan is Volldampf voraus! - the German equivalent of "full steam ahead" - a particular request for talks and projects featuring forward looking hands-on topics. The Chaos Computer Club has always encouraged creative and unorthodox interaction with technology and society, in the good tradition of the real meaning of "hacking".
http://events.ccc.de/congress/2007/Press_Review
Comments (3 of 3)
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http://de.youtube.com/watch?v=w18bXtdKpSs&feature=related
six months? Pah! Its 3 years+ here I think.
Used to be "indefinitely" until someone coughed and politely mentioned it to eircom.
All internet users should visit
http://www.digitalrights.ie/
regarding irelands info retention laws specifically
http://www.digitalrights.ie/2006/08/08/irish-times-endo...case/
What can you do to protect yourself?
well, ideally, stop using internet, mobile phone, credit card, bank account, pay for everything in cash, burn your clubcard etc etc. Don't sign on or apply for government aid of any kind. Don't travel abroad. avoid filling in forms correctly (don't hesitate to tell lots of inconsistent lies when there are no major penalties involved!!) or at all. Say NO when routinely asked for private info and ignore the bovine looks and annoyance that you get in response. You have to fight for privacy unfortunately.
However most of that advice is really not practical for most folk.
However, here are some tips and software suggestions to improve your online privacy (which are fairly practical )
(0)use https://www.indymedia.ie/ :)
(1)Encrypt your mails routinely. Even if you've "nothing to hide". It helps those who do from not standing out. By those who do, I mean activists and the like, not criminals. These laws make little difference to them. They already protect their activities using the best tech money can buy.
(2)Cycle the power on your router daily (or as often as you can). This changes your IP address
(and do set your browser to delete all cookies when you close it down. firefox can be set to do this)
(3)Be wary of services who say they will obfuscate your web activity. These use a lot of expensive bandwidth. Why would someone spend that money for nothing but a principle? humans ain't that good hearted!
(4)Use open source software (firefox, thunderbird, enigmail, peerguardian, linux if you can)
(5)run a peer IP blocker
(6)resist all technologies and software that try to encroach upon your privacy
(7)reject Intellectual Property legislation, software patents, drm and all such insidious technologies designed to hamper your online freedoms. do not buy devices / software which promote such technologies. copyright law was never meant to restrict mankinds endeavours to the degree advocated by greedy corporations.
Links:
Email client supporting non corporate encryption
http://www.mozilla.com/products/download.html?product=t...en-US
email encryption plugin
http://enigmail.mozdev.org/download.html
open source encryption engine (used by above email software and plugin)
http://www.gnupg.org/download/
IM chat software which allows you to have private encrypted conversations (compatible with yahoo protocol)
http://www.pidgin.im/download/
matching encryption plugin:
http://www.cypherpunks.ca/otr/
IP blocker software (for when you don't want "undesirables" making connections to your computer without your knowledge):
http://phoenixlabs.org/pg2/
alternative blocker, Lists and list manager available from:
http://www.bluetack.co.uk/forums/index.php
(please donate a few bucks! they are strapped for cash. they provide a crucial service.)
wiki links to help you:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enigmail
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozilla_Thunderbird
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pidgin_%28software%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Off-the-Record_Messaging
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peerguardian
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protowall
Educate yourself. The price of freedom is eternal vigilance and active learning
Anyone got any more / better recommendations / links?
perhaps they could post them here.
be frugal with google!!
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