Confederation of European Computer User Associations

CECUA Euro-news flash

Do you want somebody to set himself up as a censor on the Internet and decide on his own what is good and what is bad for you? There is a "Saint" out there doing it.

Our Euro-news flash Do I want to spy on my neighbours and do I want my neighbours to spy on me? Can you mind your own business! has received a lot of attention. And rightly so. Shortly thereafter, we tried to access the Project I Spy web-site again. Instead of gaining access we received a short message saying that "the service was no longer available because it was against the use policy of the Internet". There was no header and no signature. Really nothing to indicate who the message was from. We assumed that our Internet Service Provider had got into the act and installed himself as a self-proclaimed censor for the Internet. So we e-mailed him and asked him about it and also asked for info on his use policy. Almost immediately we got a reply that he had nothing to do with this censorship and had no knowledge of who the self-proclaimed censor was, and did not appear to be interested. This was indeed becoming very interesting. According to this somebody "above" the ISP was obviously censoring the Internet. And for some reason he preferred to remain anonymous. But we did not give up that easily. We decided to try another ISP and see what the situation was with him. We tried another ISP and got the same exactly the same response. And we still have not found out who the censor is. Regardless, it is a fact that somewhere out there is somebody, " The Saint", who is deciding on my behalf and your behalf what is good for us and what is bad for us to see. Our feelings are mixed. On one hand we are grateful to "The Saint" for helping to contain the abuse of information technology. But on the other hand we are equally concerned about being left in the dark about who this "Saint" is and also how he works. How does he decide what is abuse and what is not? Does he have a book of rules? Is he using the Bill of Rights CECUA and Partners have been proposing for the citizens of the Information Society? If yes he would be well served. The Bill of Rights focuses on the citizens by spelling out in non-technical terms his or her basic rights as a citizen of the Information Society. It uses common and plain language such as privacy, freedom of personal development, freedom of communication, etc. There are no fancy technological terms here. It is all plain vanilla. The message is quite clear.

We would very much like to get to get in touch with the censor who ruled out the Project I Spy on the Internet. Our methods are definitely different. We want the Internet to police itself through its users. And we are against self-proclaimed censors who stay out of sight and without a name. The policing of the Internet is a part of our democratic process and it calls for transparency and openness. That is what the Bill of Rights is for: to serve as a basis for such democratic discussion. "The Saint" and CECUA and Partners may well have the same goal: to make the Information Society a better place to live in. But our methods pull us a part.

The Bill of Rights provides the citizen with a "safety net" giving him the necessary support and assurance if he ever needs it. And with Project I-Spy around the citizen certainly needs it. With the Bill of Rights generally accepted and in place the Project I-Spy is contained. There will always be exceptions. But as long as they remain exceptions it proves there is a rule and it works.

There is an on-going discussion about the Bill of Rights is on the web. All citizens are invited to participate and comment and exchange views with fellow citizens. The address is: www.cecua.org Participate and help us to bring the message home. Or if you have a better idea how to contain Internet spying please let us know, send us an e-mail and we will be delighted.

11.7.1999 JT