The “Snowden effect” grows. A year ago, the NSA wasn’t on the radar of most American citizens. Post NSA-revelations and user privacy concerns urge people to protect their privacy by counteracting government claims for national security.
Digital civil disobedience is an attempt to irritate the NSA. People refuse to accept privacy violations and show it by using encrypted email services and browsers. Others came up with ingenious methods, for instance, Jeff Lyon, a software engineer developed Flagger, a program that attaches the words “pressure cooker” and “blow up” to sites users visit. Such smoke screen initiatives are taking place across the US as the backlash that followed the government surveillance revelations keeps growing. While Flagger doesn’t improve user privacy, it serves to remind NSA that some citizens are concerned about aggressive privacy violations.
While lawmakers seek to redefine privacy laws and entrepreneurs create encryption software to take advantage of Internet users’ ever-growing privacy concerns, the debate still rages. Is it possible to ensure national security without violating privacy rights?
Encrypted email programs and browsers offer a solution to anxious users, but shouldn’t we be looking for a long-term, viable solution? Creating fake profiles and flooding the web with red flag terms might be momentarily entertaining, but it does nothing to achieve a commonly acceptable solution.
The Internet is integral to our personal and professional lives as its uses continue to multiply. First, it was just for chatting; today we pay bills, work, collaborate, solve problems, and drive innovation forward with it. For that reason, users ought to be respected for the trust they put in websites, companies and e-services. Personal information should remain so and be used only as the two parties have agreed to.
ProctorFree is aware of such privacy concerns and ensures that its proctoring services strike a balance between user privacy and service efficiency. ProctorFree collects no more user information than it needs or would normally be monitored in a live proctoring environment, respecting the users right for liberty and privacy.
