On Thursday, a US court ordered that documents showing that the National Security Agency (NSA) was forcing Yahoo to submit user data, as per new internet surveillance rules, be made public. Yahoo had contested the NSA directive as ?unconstitutional? in court after the government surveillance body threatened it with a $250,000-a-day fine for non-compliance. The matter has revived the online privacy debate, both in the US and elsewhere in the world, with, of course, pressure mounting on NSA to desist, given it was at the centre of the Snowden-leaks scandal of 2013.
This is not the first time that an internet major is questioning a government’s approach to online privacy?Facebook, Twitter and a few other big-wigs of the internet have joined hands to oppose NSA’s ?intrusive? surveillance and infringement of privacy by governments elsewhere. Such initiatives, advocates of right to privacy believe, would help nuance policies on security-related surveillance by letting internet companies have their own screening and reporting mechanisms. But how do those with the biggest stakes in the protection of online privacy, the internet users, see the issue? A Pew Research study found 50% of the respondents (all were American internet users) to a survey believed that the government (read NSA) has not gone overboard with surveillance while 35% felt the government had seriously breached civil liberties of its citizens. However, when it came to websites/apps asking for personal information, independent research showed, users were more likely to find such mining ?excessive?. What explains the dichotomy? The Washington Post points out in a blog that more people in the US believe that the chances security threats like terrorists attacks have gone up, which is why most internet users are not sceptical of government monitoring. This is in sharp contrast with online companies not being seen too kindly by the average user. Perhaps, there is a need for consumers to alter this perception, given the very companies they are suspicious of are also the ones that are at the forefront of the drive to safeguard online privacy.
