We know the headlines by heart by now. Edward Snowden. NSA surveillance. Target credit cards compromised. Sextortion. No wonder why some are calling for an online bill of rights.
World Wide Web inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee calls for an online ‘Magna Carta’. Lee believes this pact would protect the Internet from tyrannical governments and out of control greedy corporations. In an initiative called ‘The Web We Want’, every nation is called to produce an online bill of rights in which institutions, corporations and governments are expected to respect. Mr. Lee argues that if we don’t have an open and free Internet, we won’t have open democracy, media, healthcare, community or culture either. He’s been an outspoken critic of American and British spy agencies and what we’ve learned about how they’re listening to our cell phones and watching our computers, whether the person knows or approves of it or not.
You know we’re onto something when the father of the modern Internet is calling for a revolution in online privacy. Some say Lee and other advocates have blown this thing way over proportion. There are some voices who say this kind of surveillance is what is needed to catch the bad guys. These voices will also tell you, “If you’re not doing anything wrong, you have nothing to worry about!” I’m not one of those voices. That’s because we live in age where even the most innocent things can easily be twisted and skewed into something far bigger than what it is. Plus, there’s that thing called the 4th amendment. So there’s legal protection right there. And ‘The Web We Want’ movement is growing. Will you join?