One year after September 11, personal privacy is an international casualty in the war on terror. It has now been one year since the horrific events of September 11th, 2001. It is often said that "everything has changed." That includes privacy, . . .
One year after September 11, personal privacy is an international casualty in the war on terror. It has now been one year since the horrific events of September 11th, 2001. It is often said that "everything has changed." That includes privacy, and the changes are not limited to the United States.

Outside the U.S., the war on terrorism has pulled in many of the previous anti-privacy campaigns, and created new ones. The most obvious changes are the enactments of new anti-terrorism or related laws. Many countries have taken advantage of the situation including Australia, Belarus, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, India, New Zealand, Spain, and the UK. Other countries have amended data protection, wiretap and privacy laws and regulations to make surveillance easier. There has also been some pushback by legislatures, courts and citizens to many of the worst ideas.

One of the first things brought into the war on terrorism was the war on cyber-crime. As the scare-a-week pronouncements from our cyber-war czars tell us, Bin Laden's minions are going to get us through our computers next. Really. Honest. The result has been the new global effort led by the U.S. through the G-8 to require ISPs and other telecommunications providers to build in surveillance capabilities -- not just to intercept selected communications, but to monitor and record all user communications and activities and keep the records for years, just in case someone later turn out to be a terrorist, or is suspected of some cybercrime like not paying their Microsoft licensing fee.

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