So you think major IT service companies don’t get along, huh? That is true sometimes. However, there are times they put their competitive nature aside to fight for a greater cause. It’s big tech vs. British surveillance.
So what they’re fighting against is the the United Kingdom’s GCHQ bill/law. Well, let me go back to 2016. That year, they passed a law letting all governments and law agencies snoop and hack all computers. This means whether they’re suspected of doing anything wrong or not. But now, this GCHQ goes even further. Because if they enforce this, it will lead to what they call ‘ghost protocol’. That means law and government agencies can snoop onto your machine and/or computer system with no detection. They can spy on you and nobody, not you, not the big tech companies, will even know it.
So naturally, the big boys of tech: Apple, Google, Microsoft, and What’s App are writing concerning letters against this big brother surveillance. Their letter says it threatens digital security, leads to mistrust and can easily be abused. They also call this an invasion of privacy and threat to free speech. They call it what is really is: third party snooping. These companies are getting a lot of help. Because many other organizations are fighting this GHCQ business. They include Human Rights Watch and Reports Without Borders. They also include men like computer security expert and activist Bruce Schneier.
However, leaders pushing for this GCHQ insists this is ‘lawful hacking’. Plus, they say that they have their own system to make sure nobody goes too far. This may fly if we were still in the early 2000s. But look at what’s been going on in this 2010s decade. Nobody is buying it anymore, certainly not big IT support. This is the showdown between big tech vs. British surveillance. Whose side are you on?h