Find out how fast your Net connection really is technology for Your Business Get the IT tools you need to win Mobile Technology email newsletter Get ZDNet's mobile news and reviews. The mail has always had a universally accepted notion of privacy. Yet as most human communications move into the electronic sphere, privacy is under attack as never before. In this detailed look at government cyber-snooping, ZDNet draws on the strengths of our global news network, with articles from ZDNN writers in the UK, US, Germany and France. The European Union is becoming increasingly uneasy about Echelon, but the complexity of the technology and the network of relationships between the authorities and the telecommunications industry will make regulation hard to stick.
Echelon is a global network of surveillance sites.
Slowly but surely proof of its existence is entering the public domain. In this report, we roundup key events in the unmasking of Echelon. The French fight back French companies and individuals take their grievances to court, as Americans try to justify covert surveillance activities as a necessary protective measure against European commercial bribery habits. By Richard Barry, Editor ZDNet News, UK Echelon fears could force new laws for America Concerns that US intelligence agencies spy on ordinary American citizens could cause Nixon-era protections to be strengthened for the Internet age. Spooks now use browser-based software to select a country from a world map, and then suck in its secrets at the click of a mouse.