On Morality: Not-Just-A-Consulting-Monkey

In lieu of the recently uncovered scandals involving the German (US, British etc) secret services - and the respective government officials, I reflected upon my (consulting) engagements:

 

* I deeply mistrust government organizations that keep too many things hidden from their own government. The current „review boards“ (German: Untersuchungsausschuss) are systematically boycotted by the „agencies“ and will surely not lead to any significant result or changed behavior. Documents are destroyed or blackened - officials show no interest whatsoever to uncover wrongdoing.

* Spying on their own citizens without specific warrant violates our constitution, I support appropriate initiatives (reference in German).

* Helping other nations’ intelligence agencies to spy on our own citizens and companies is a serious crime and should be prosecuted. 

* In light of recent and not-so-recent eventy, including everything around heroic whistleblower Ed Snowdon, supporting these organizations is morally doubtful or debatable.

* Investigating or preventing violent crime is required police work, but must under no circumstances be unconditionally extended to the private sphere of all (!) individuals and organizations of a country.

I believe that consultants/architects and developers like myself should start to stand up for morality and *real* compliance to our constitution - and refuse all kind of support for the „secret organizations“ and those parts of our government that is related to them (e.g. the German Kanzleramt).

For myself I therefore decided to refrain from doing ANY WORK for the „secret organizations“, until all of the currently open issues have been clarified (but I doubt that will ever happen, as long as we have to endure political puppets that act as cohorts to foreign governments).

The only exception that I regards morally acceptable would be support for changing-these-organizations-for-the-better, e.g. creating transparency, investigate and uncover previous crimes or supporting reviews.

 

(I re-used the term from the inspiring Martin-Fowler keynote from OOP-Conference 2014)

 

Deutschland wählt totale Überwachung - Ade digitale Bürgerrechte

Demokratie == das Volk herrscht.


Heute (22. September 2013) hat das deutsche Volk sich entschieden, auf Privatsphäre im Internet auch zukünftig weiträumig zu verzichten.

Da unsere großartigen Faselpolitiker ja lieber über Autobahn-Maut-für-Ausländer streiten, oder so genannte systemrelevante Betrüger mit Geld bewerfen - kann das "Neuland" Internet ja ruhig von den Kumpels der anderen Geheimdienste weiter kontaminiert werden. Vor den eigenen "Diensten" braucht man sich ja kaum zu fürchten - die können ja nicht mal richtig Verbrecher fangen.

Ich glaube, die Tatsache der verlorenen digitalen Privatsphäre ist für Normalbürger schlicht zu kompliziert. Oder wird vom alltäglichen Ärger überlagert.

Ich zumindest markiere mir den Tag als trauriges Ereignis im Kalender: Mitbevölkerung hat's nicht kapiert. Politiker interessiert's nicht. Für Medien nicht cool, weil weder Sex noch Blut. Und wir paar (entsetzten) Informatiker zählen nicht genug.


(Politik-)Frust auf ganzer Linie.

The Privacy Tragedy or NDA Considered Impossible

The classic tragedy is a sad story - as protagonists usually suffer from serious losses.

The last few weeks have shown that our privacy had been lost years ago - without us (protagonists) realising it.

Now, with the heroic help of guys like Ed Snowden, the magnitude of this privacy-loss became visible:

* Governments (especially from the US, Germany, UK and maybe several others) violate fundamental privacy rights (like the American Constitution and the German Grundgesetz).

* Companies trying to keep their users' data private are forced by governments to either shut down their operation or violate privacy rights.

* All Internet traffic is systematically monitored by government agencies - without users' consent. They are reading ALL our communications.

The Root of All Evil: Yes - We Scan!

The root of this evil is located in the USA and its villains (Germany and the UK as prime examples). Storing and processing (private) data and communication via companies located in these countries has from now on to be considered unsafe, sometimes harmful!

Ok - you probably already knew that. And you knew Obama's slogan "Yes, We Scan"?

The Tragedy

We cannot do a single thing about it - without giving up the comfort zone:

* Our operating systems are designed (sometimes well, sometimes worse) in the USA. I personally find it *very* likely that modern operating systems already contain backdoors for governments.

* Most communication and social networking services are located in the US (Facebook, Twitter, Google, Yahoo, LinkedIn) or Germany (Web.de, GMX, Telekom) - and actively cooperate with governments! They freely give away your private data!

* Many convenience services are located in the US (Dropbox, Evernote, GoogleDrive, Microsoft-SkyDrive). Despite their claims to keep our data private, they all cooperate with Governments.

* The fundamental infrastructure for large portions of software development is tightly connected to US companies (Java -> Oracle, C# and dotNet -> Microsoft, VMWare (SpringSource), JavaScript (Apple, Google)).

* OpenSource is only better in theory: For larger systems (like Linux, Firefox, BSD, Gnome, KDE, MySQL) it is simply not viable to inspect the source code for potential security or privacy issues. How can I keep my trust in systems like TrueCrypt or the EncFS (encrypted file system)?

We Are Lost

I have never in my life been more frustrated with politics and these so called "democratic" governments (this incompetent morons that failed in protecting our Grundgesetz or the US constitution). They value secret agencies higher than our rights to keep private information private!

We lost privacy in digital life. No (comfortable) way out of this!

NDA Considered Impossible

I earn my money with software and computer stuff. It involves private and sometimes even secret information.

I usually sign privacy agreements (NDA, non-disclosure-agreement). I promise in this legally binding documents not to give away *any* private or secret data.

From now nobody in our business can keep such a promise! Somebody gives me digital data - some rogue government will be able to read it!

Hope In Small And Painful Doses

Yes - you can encrypt your email (PGP, GPG or S/Mime). All of these solutions require a considerable investment in software and organizational infrastructure.

Yes - you can move to self-compiled Linux kernels and window drivers. If you're willing to invest days to get the most fundamental system up-and-running. None of the sexy software packages run on your exotic system. It's not nearly as comfortable as the commercially available alternatives.

And - what will be a trustworthy compiler? Is the backdoor already build into your hardware (which is most likely driven by US-designed chips…)

Yes - you can move away from *all* the comfortable network and cloud-based services. No Google or Bing searches, no tweets, no Facebook, no Dropbox, LinkedIn or Xing any longer.

Despite myself trying some of these steps - tragedy struck. We're lost our privacy.

Thanx, Ed, for making this clear.

Letter to Our Governments: Germany, GB and US are Surveillance States

Dear Mrs Merkel, Mr Cameron and Mr Obama,

in transforming your countries to surveillance states you let them win - those terrorists and scoundrels of all kinds. That surely was one of THEIR plans - planting seeds of mistrust in our western democratic societies.

Now you spy on your own fellow, consciously violate privacy and the secrecy of (formerly) private communication over public networks. Mrs Merkel called for similar surveillance in Germany...

You accuse those who informed the public and media about you spying on citizens - although they deserve to become public heroes (read what Bruce Schneier says about it)

I hereby declare my high esteem to those we nowadays call "whistleblowers", the Snowdens and Mannings, the heroes of our time. They sacrifice a life in freedom, so that all others know about Prism, Tempora and potentially others. 

Liberty of speech, thought and communication is one of the pillars of democracy - and I personally see those violated by YOU.

I signed every petition website I could get hold of in favor of Ed Snowden - and very much hope he never needs to regret what he did for us! Kudos to him and other truth-tellers - that's what whistleblowing is about!

 

Bruce Schneier impressively summarizes:

"You governments are putting your own self-interest ahead of the interests of the country. That needs to change!"

Just in case you ever considered calling me a friend - forget it. 

 

From today, I'll be actively sponsoring and using privacy networks like Tor. I will at least try to break out of surveillance!

 

deeply troubled,

Gernot Starke

Herr Rösler und die Dummheit...

… sagte unser junger Herr Rösler und zZt Vizekanzler bezüglich der Diskussion um das Verbot
der rechtsradikalen NPD: Dummheit kann man nicht verbieten.

Für mich gehören die Unterstützung von Terroranschlägen, die Verbreitung rechtsradikaler
Gedanken und Gebräuche, Diffamierung und Bedrohung von Minderheiten und weitere NPD Untaten keinesfalls in die Kategorie Dummheiten, sondern Untragbarkeiten.

Und die müssen wir meiner Meinung nach verbieten - mit allen Mitteln unseres Rechtsstaates.

Dummheit hingegen sollten wir nach dem Motto shit happens tolerieren, aber bei Bedarf abwählen. Oder die Betroffenen sollten aus ihrer Dummheit lernen - aber das scheint in der Politik selten zu geschehen.

Herr Wulff - Sie sind mir XXL-peinlich !

in der Regel verzichte ich in meinem IT-orientierten Blog ja auf politische Stellungnahmen - aber der aus meiner Sicht peinlichste Politiker der letzten Jahre lässt mir keine Ruhe.

Nach seiner peinlichen Ich-gebe-nur-zu-was-bereits-herausgekommen-ist Taktik, seiner krassen Bürger- und Menschenferne und seines an alte Adelszeiten erinnerndes Herrschaftsgehabe fordert (und erhält leider auch) er einen *Ehrensold*. Für welche Ehre denn? Die peinliche Ehre, der schlechteste, skandalöseste Präsident überhaupt gewesen zu sein? Welch eine peinliche Fehlbesetzung. Was für ein schlechter Witz der Politik.

Und nun, krasser kann's kaum kommen, fordert Herr bevorteile-mich-vor-allen-anderen-Wulff auch noch ein bezahltes Büro mit Angestellten auf Lebenszeit.

Ich gönne meinen Mitmenschen wirklich nichts Schlechtes. Herrn Wulff gönne ich weder seinen Sold noch sein Büro. Möge irgendwer gegen diese schreiende Ungerechtigkeit klagen - sie wird der ohnehin grassierenden Politikverdrossenheit Wasser auf die Mühlen sein.

Vielleicht sollten wir das Exil wieder einführen. Sibirien, jetzt frisch unter Putins Herrschaft, wäre ein schöner Ort für Herrn Wulff, finde ich. Da würde Herr Wulff mit seiner Erfahrung in Halbwahrheit, Verdrehung und Verblendung sicher gut ankommen.

Bruce Schneier on Security and Terrorism

Bruce Schneier wrote up a really good piece on security and terrorism - triggered by the recent tragic attacks in Bombay/Mumbay, India.

On Olympics and Beijing

Usually I refrain from political posts - but Tibet shall be well worth every exception!



It's a shame, a tragedy and a disaster: A big country invades a small one. Nobody cares.
Now the big country happens to host the olympics - and a few fellows from the small country
(now a so called province of the big country) try to protest their invasion. Tibetians are (and have been for a long time) severely oppressed and robbed of their (rich) cultural heritage by China. It's an
illegal invasion, nothing less!

I'm really fond of the RSF (reporters sans frontiers) initiative to boycott the opening ceremony of the 2008 olympic games - and I urge our German officials to follow this path. Do not allow
the big country their carefully planned marketing triumph.


Additionally, Jan Kurschewitz has posted a brief writeup plus some additional links.

Verfassungsbeschwerde gegen Vorratsdatenspeicherung

Ich habe mich der Verfassungsbeschwerde gegen die Vorratsdatenspeicherung angeschlossen - einer löblichen Initiative gegen ein aus meiner Sicht Gesetz ohne jegliches Sachverständnis und bar jeder Verhältnismäßigkeit

Ein paar Infos zum Thema bei Wikipedia und dem Choas-Computer-Club.

Köln: Bürger dürfen mitbestimmen

Nur für Kölner: Die Stadt bietet hier die Möglichkeit, per Internet (vorher: einfache Registrierung) über Spar- und Ausgabenvorschläge abzustimmen.

Sehr schön für aktive Bürger der Stadt - unbedingt mal reinschauen (ich habe für Vorschlag 2488 gestimmt..)

I've been to Burma - a dozen years ago...

what a beautiful country, torn down by a brutal regime. Not too many things we can do from here...

If you're interested in the topic, read on here.