Stop Online Spying!

OpenMedia for Immediate Release

These bills will hurt your wallet and your privacy
‏

The government is trying to push through an anti-Internet set of electronic surveillance laws that will invade your privacy and cost you money. They’re calling it "Lawful" Access -- we're calling it warrantless, invasive, costly, and poorly thought out.

The plan is to force every phone and Internet provider to surrender our personal information to "authorities" without a warrant.

This bizarre legislation will create Internet surveillance that is:

• Warrantless: If these bills pass, we're looking at a future where a range of “authorities” will have the ability to invade the private lives of law-abiding Canadians and our families using wired Internet and mobile devices, without any justification.
• Invasive: This is a radical break from existing safeguards and leaves our personal and financial information less secure and more susceptible to cybercrime. Who will ensure that our personal information is not misused or stolen?  
• Costly: Internet services providers will be forced to install millions of dollars of spying technology and the cost will be passed down to YOU.

Besides all this, the bills are poorly written, use vague terms, and provide dangerously unchecked powers to government. In fact, every single provincial privacy commissioner has stepped up to criticize them.

If enough of us speak out now the government will have no choice but to stop this mandatory online spying scheme.

Sign the Stop Online Spying petition now, and forward it to everyone you know.

For the Internet,
Steve, Reilly, Lindsey, Glyn, and Shea -- The OpenMedia.ca Team
PS: OpenMedia.ca depends on the support of Canadians like you to continue our fight for a more open and affordable Internet. Please consider a gift to OpenMedia.ca to help us in our work. Visit http://openmedia.ca/give to chip in.

SOURCES:
The Globe And Mail: Bill C-51 will turn ISPs into Internet gatekeepers
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/technology/digital-culture/dwayne-winseck/bill-c-51-will-turn-isps-into-internet-gatekeepers/article2059908/
TVO’s Search Engine: It's Time to Worry About Lawful Access
http://www.tvo.org/cfmx/tvoorg/searchengine/index.cfm?page_id=613&action=blog&subaction=viewpost&blog_id=485&post_id=15829
Michael Geist: Web Surveillance Legislation Requires Study, Not Speed
http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/5808/135/
Canadian Privacy Law Blog: Canadian police state legislation needs closer examination
http://blog.privacylawyer.ca/2011/04/canadian-police-state-legislation-needs.html
Letter to Public Safety Canada from Canada's Privacy Commissioners and Ombudspersons on the current 'Lawful Access' proposals
http://www.priv.gc.ca/media/nr-c/2011/let_110309_e.cfm
From Maiden Heaven and others on the OpenMedia.ca Facebook Discussion Boards: Canadian police state legislation needs closer examination
http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=173437729758&topic=16926

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