US linked to new wave of online surveillance, censorship

February 28, 2013 | Science / Technology | Written by

Washington, Feb 28: Open, democratic governments including the United Stated, have sought laws and new forms of surveillance, which according to many is a new wave of censorship, a report has said.

The U.S. government had asked Google for data on its users over 31,000 times in 2012 alone, for example.

The government also rarely obtained a search warrant first, Google recently revealed; in nearly all cases, the company ended up turning over at least some data, Fox News reports.

According to the report, notes the Freedom House report “Freedom on the Net 2012 said that ‘s number of democratic states have considered or implemented various restrictions in response to the potential legal, economic, and security challenges raised by new media.’

The report pointed out that virtually every major U.S. company and media outlet has been a victim of hacking attacks, consequently, lawmakers even President Barack Obama in his State of the Union address, have been motivated to take steps to stem the hacking tide.

However, the road to better security could also stifle free speech, the report added.

The report said that individual governments, including Canada and the US, continue to introduce their own legislation to control what’s online.

The U.S. government continues to conduct warrantless online searches, and is increasingly looking at private online communications, often without any oversight by a judge, the report added. (ANI)