The cost of online spying: Your privacy and your wallet (via Openmedia)
Would you want up to three billion dollars of your country’s tax dollars spent on your own online surveillance? How would you feel if Public Safety Minister Vic Toews had already quietly set aside your money for such a scheme?
(Apparently, the previous press reports that the bill was left to die may be misleading.)
This isn’t a hypothetical question. If passed, online spying bill C-30 will have you paying for a range of authorities to invasively access your private online information, at any time, without a warrant. The warrantless online spying plan is invasive and poorly thought-out, and one expert is saying it could cost billions of dollars.1
Toews has already set aside millions of your tax dollars just to get the the online spying plan started,2 and just last week he told media that the government is still “intent on proceeding” with the wildly unpopular bill.3,4
We know from experience that MPs get the message when contacted by local constituents, and there’s only a small window of opportunity to stop this scheme
Footnotes
[1] Read our summary, Christopher Parsons: $80 Million dollars for Lawful Access Bill C-30 is a tall guesstimate, or find the original article here.
[2] Law professor Michael Geist recently reported that “the Public Safety Report on Plans and Priorities for the coming year include a commitment to advance lawful access legislation and an allocation of $2.1 million specifically earmarked for the issue.”
[3] Article from CBC News: Internet surveillance bill not dead, Toews says
[4] Blog: Stop Online Spying hits 100k: Canadians are an inspiration
(Source: youtube.com)
