The Surveillance State & The Cloud – FISA Now, Next Tax.

File this under ‘wake up’:

US govt agencies able to spy on any cloud-based data without warrant.

All personal information stored by internet users on major "cloud" computing services including Google Drive can be spied upon routinely without their knowledge by US authorities under newly approved legislation.

Cloud computing has exploded in recent years as a flexible, cheap way for individuals, companies and Government bodies to store documents and data.

But it has now emerged that all documents uploaded on to cloud systems based in the US or falling under Washington's jurisdiction can be accessed and analysed without a warrant.

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, known as FISA, allows US Government agencies open access to any electronic information stored by non-American citizens by US-based companies. 

Quietly introduced during the dying days of President George W. Bush's Administration in 2008, it was renewed over Christmas 2012. But only now are privacy campaigners and legal experts waking up to the extent of the intrusion.

Think how much accounting data is routinely worked on and stored permanently in the cloud: Xero, CRSOnline, MYOB Live; all accounting systems that aren’t already in the cloud will be there within five years.

My prediction: within ten years, all profligate Western governments (that’s all of them) will have granted their taxing authorities unlimited access to fishing trips in the cloud, and you won’t even know when they’re going through your data, just as currently happens with your bank accounts.

Anyone want to take the bet?

When do we start getting uncomfortable with this? The Land of the Free has become such a sick joke: the United Police States of America, again, the biggest surveillance state in the world, and growing bigger ...

[NZ School Curriculum and charter schools post still coming … though my blogging activities now definitely heavily curtailed until mid-April.]