This is not some conspiracy. This isn't even a Snowden type whistleblowing. This is an official statement form a British multinational telecommunications conglomerate which makes billions of dollars across globe. We have seen "Action" taken against several Silicon Valley companies that ended up doing mostly nothing. But in nine countries disclosing about the capabilities - not actual activities but capabilities - is illegal. Here are those countries:

Albania, Egypt, Hungary, India, Malta, Qatar, Romania, South Africa, and Turkey

The Biggest Farce

When it comes to the political landscape, the truth is like a farce. People care so much about privacy and what the corporations do when they loose an election. But the reason I write this article is a transparency report by Vodafone written in 2014. The fact that governments have backdoor access to all your communications provided by telecoms has been officially acknowledged.

In these countries, the company noted, Vodafone "will not receive any form of demand for lawful interception access as the relevant agencies and authorities already have permanent access to customer communications via their own direct link."
Source

There is no need to notify these companies or obtain warrants. Many governments around the world have direct access to all your communication. Basically everything is tapped. Vodafone doesn't name any countries specifically due to concerns of employee safety as a government could come up with false charges (in a more civilized country) or straight up abduct and torture individuals for revealing too many things about the legal mafia.

Why Doesn't Anybody Care?

There are many reasons. Some think the security provided is worth it. Some think government can do no harm. Some just stick their heads in the sand. Some think government is too big to fight. Some just straight up deny facts just because. but there is a root that I can point towards. The root is the lack of principles. Two weeks ago I wrote how John Oliver got people to care about privacy. The secret was actually dick pics. Unless people have their own private parts on line, they won't act.

The only other ways I know of to get people to act is through embracing principles or just providing more conveniences. If we can find a product with at least one of those two, we can take care of ourselves to not have our words monitored and taken out of context at the whims of some organization.

Telegram

Telegram was asked to hand over the encryption keys to the Federal Security Service (FSB) of Russia in order to facilitate the fight against terrorism and other criminal activities believed to be coordinated using the messaging service. It's basically what Vodafone and many others faced. But Telegram said NO and stood their ground.

This shows that they stand for principles and you don't get to 200 million monthly active users without being convenient.

Status (SNT) - A Decentralized Ecosystem With Encrypted Communication

They also have DAPPs and other cool features. The beta version is already up and running for both Android and iOS Just click on the links to use download. I'm not sure about the quality of the encryption and it probably can't compete with PGP. But you can't just bring don a decentralized project. So Status has resilience and what it takes to have mass appeal to almost bocome sort of a WeChat app.

You have the right to your privacy as long as you do not violate the NAP. Privacy is a cornerstone of civilization. Those who have nothing to hide are ubiquitous in the animal kingdom. But even growing among the beasts, Mowgli had a few things to cover up and hide. If governments get direct access and nobody bats an eye, use encryption and protect yourself. When raining you don't cover the sky, you get yourself and umbrella.

A Ray of Light

I was happy to see these results on dpoll and it shows that at least STEEM is a platform that is mostly free from these idiotic ideology driven people of left and right. This is why I bother to write about these topics. On Facebook, these posts would be controversial with both left and right attacking the sensibilities to rpotct their own ideology bubbles.

But on steemit we are more sensible.

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