14 DAY TRIAL // The revelations regarding the mass surveillance done by the NSA and other intelligence agencies across the world have produced a number of reactions from numerous individuals, outrage and disbelief being some of them.
Earlier this month, the encrypted email service that Edward Snowden supposedly used was shut down as the founders were pressed by authorities to provide information.
Now, another famous blog, Groklaw is closing down due to the thread of email surveillance.
Pamela Jones, the site’s founder, says she’s been thinking of this for several weeks, trying to figure out a way to continue.
“And the conclusion I’ve reached is that there is no way to continue doing Groklaw, not long term, which is incredibly sad. But it’s good to be realistic. And the simple truth is, no matter how good the motives might be for collecting and screening everything we say to one another, and no matter how ‘clean’ we all are ourselves from the standpoint of the screeners, I don’t know how to function in such an atmosphere. I don’t know how to do Groklaw like this,” Jones said in a post.
She motivates her decision by saying she cannot do Groklaw without the input of the blog’s readers. Considering the latest information regarding the data collected by the NSA, Jones doesn’t feel comfortable with having her messages read.
“They tell us that if you send or receive an email from outside the US, it will be read. If it’s encrypted, they keep it for five years, presumably in the hopes of tech advancing to be able to decrypt it against your will and without your knowledge. Groklaw has readers all over the world,” Jones says.
Furthermore, she says she feels “constricted and distracted” because her mail correspondence isn’t private. “You don’t expect a stranger to read your private communications to a friend,” Jones mentions, obviously indicating that Groklaw readers are the friends and the NSA as the stranger.
Groklaw is a website that covers legal news which was started ten years ago.