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Israeli Activists Protest Against Biometric Database Law using Drones October 1, 2014 · by Guest Author · in Guest Opinion   “I wasn’t made by finger”, Israeli slang means “I wasn’t born yesterday” CC BY-SA nobio.org A year ago members of Pirate Party Germany landed a drone in front of Angela Merkel’s campaign rally in Dresden, in order to protest the use of surveillance drones by the EU. This month, Israeli activists used this method of protest against the loss of privacy to the next level. They flew a drone above the private estate of MK Meir Shitrit, a former Minister of Interior, who is behind the Israeli Biometric Database …

Net Neutrality and America’s Censorship Through the Backdoor September 12, 2014 · by Guest Author · in Guest Opinion In one of those rare moments in history, grassroots activists and Silicon Valley are on the same side of an issue: net neutrality must be saved at all costs. For Silicon Valley businesses such as Netflix, there is clearly an economic incentive for preserving net neutrality. Netflix and its Silicon Valley brethren do not want to have to pay for the internet “fast lanes” that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is proposing. Earlier this year, Netflix customers noticed something odd. Videos were taking forever to load. Soon, the real reason was …

Is Sweden Helping Turkey to Suppress Digital Freedoms? June 19, 2014 · by Guest Author · in Guest Opinion Is the Gothenborg-based NetClean software as innocent as it is presented or is it used for silencing political dissent? Are Turkey’s notorious attempts to limit freedom of expression on the Internet adopting yet another powerful tool? This is the question that comes to mind when reading the news of the Swedish digital security company NetClean’s possible deal with the Turkish government. It was announced on a pro-government media outlet, Daily Sabah, that the government is to purchase the software for €40 million in order to combat “unwanted content” in the digital …

The Turkish Government Goes Pirate: Further Censorship and Surveillance Mechanisms Coming July 3, 2014 · by Guest Author · in Guest Opinion Due to legal obstacles to prohibiting social-media sharing by political dissidents in Turkey, the government has a new strategy: to act as Internet pirates. Much different than the political pirate movement, Turkey will now try to hack into ISPs’ systems and surveil users’ browsing/sharing habits. With this aim, recently the Internet watchdog sent a “secret orders” memo to ISPs, to prepare the software infrastructure necessary for detecting users that share unwanted content on social-media platforms. The daily Taraf’s article by Tunca Öğreten reveals the government’s plans to intervene …

Hard Times for Istanbul’s big man December 25, 2013 · by Guest Author · in Guest Opinion ‘You arrive on Friday afternoon? Good luck.’ Damn right: Friday afternoon, Istanbul traffic-jams make Rome look like Switzerland. It takes me two bloody hours on a stinky bus to get from the airport to the city center. As the bus approaches Taksim Square, I get a good look at the modern, flashy, new center of Turkey’s largest city: Dubai-style skyscrapers, more than a hundred floors high, looking down at the old town as stubborn ladies. I guess this is how all of the country should look like in the next few years, if …