The Arab Spring had an unlikely beneficiary - Western technology firms. The Atlantic reports that Middle Eastern governments paid big businesses from the other side of the planet a lot of money to enable them to spy on protesters.
Mass surveillance has been the bedrock of dictatorial strategies since the dawn of civilization. Power-hungry leaders collect every piece of data on everyone in a state to maintain their grip on the population. Surveillance was a big part of the Mussolini regime, for example.
But now, with the proliferation of smart, connected devices, keeping track of a population is easier than ever. Mass surveillance is now so efficient and effective that it could endanger the very foundation of democracy.
Democracy is on a slippery slope
Democracy has always offered power to the people, but what happens when the people are terrorized? A recent study found that an uptick in terror in recent years led to an eventual uptick in mass surveillance. When the general population is frightened by rampant terrorism , they resort to put government in charge of boosting security.
Most governments end up adopting widespread surveillance tactics that are mostly ineffective against terrorism, but could prove potentially dangerous for the population. These powerful tools are susceptible to abuse. If the mass surveillance system falls into the wrong hands, it could be used to secure unprecedented power. In other words, democracy slowly slips into a dictatorship when due to paranoia and bad judgement.
This is more than just a theory. Real life examples are abundant in the Middle East.
- Turkey, for example, cracked down on journalists and media outlets after a failed coup attempt in July.
- China has always maintained an iron curtain over its internet.
- Meanwhile, Abu Dhabi recently launched a mass surveillance system provided by Israeli tech firms.
- The Edward Snowden leaks confirmed that even developed western democracies like the United States were not immune to this tendency.
An Effective Solution
Businesses, journalists, and individuals could all find themselves targeted if a mass surveillance system falls into the wrong hands. Thankfully, there is an effective solution for this - encryption. End-to-end encryption is the only way to secure data. Sensitive corporate information, payment details, and customer data must all be secure as a contingency.
What Secure Swiss Data offers is a way to encrypt all your emails, contacts and attachments, so that no third-parties can ever gain access to them. All the data is stored in politically-neutral Switzerland, which adds an extra layer of protection against state-sponsored attackers.
Our platform uses highly sophisticated encryption. The platform utilizes two-factor authentication to ensure your data is accessible only by you. By bringing all your data under an integrated and secure service, you can protect your data effectively.
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