The documents of Edward Snowden have revealed that mostly innocent people get targeted by government surveillance programs. To put an end to this Amnesty International created a free tool that you can use to scan for state spyware on your computer.
“Detekt” can easily be downloaded and is a free software that detects spyware on you computer. During the scan the only thing important is to disconnect the computer from the internet. After the process Detekt will tell you if it found something and how to proceed.
Amnesty International comments that this tool was released because government surveillance abuses and violates human rights. The German firm FinFisher for example developed the spyware FinSpy that can extract files from hard drives, read emails and control the camera and microphone of any computer. This state spyware is systematically being used to control journalists and human rights activists.
“Detekt is a simple tool that will alert activists to such intrusions so they can take action. It represents a strike back against governments who are using information obtained through surveillance to arbitrarily detain, illegally arrest and even torture human rights defenders and journalists.”, says one of the developers.
We think that it is a positive message that civil-rights activists fight for digital freedom and against the government´s surveillance program. But it is a shame to live in a country where this digital self-defense is even necessary. Surveillance is associated with a dictatorship but not with a constitutional democracy.
The only thing left to hope for is that more and more people will stand up and fight for their rights so that for future generations it will be a normality again to browse the web freely and unwachted.
Sources:
http://amnesty.org/en/news/new-tool-spy-victims-detect-government-surveillance-2014-11-20
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/in-nsa-intercepted-data-those-not-targeted-far-outnumber-the-foreigners-who-are/2014/07/05/8139adf8-045a-11e4-8572-4b1b969b6322_story.html?hpid=z1
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/aug/30/terrorist-watch-list-rules-innocent-people
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