Turkey wants universal email surveillance from birth

Evgeny sez, "The Turkish government has a very disturbing Internet plan, which includes 1) creating a new search engine that would reflect 'Turkish sensibilities' (i.e. filter out certain results) 2) supply each of 70 million Turkish citizens with a 10 GB email account that would be linked to their national ID numbers (in fact, they will be provided with an email account from birth). This is all done under the pretense of strengthening national security, as the government doesn't want communications data to 'leave Turkey and then come back'."

Turkey tests new means of Internet control (Thanks, Evgeny!)

(Image: CAMERA ISTANBUL, a Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike photo from Material Boy's Flickr stream)

Previously:

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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BigDaddy-CF-

Already happening in United States. All data passing through major nodes within the U.S. are duplexed, and stored. They are then looked through by machines. Your data hasn’t been intercepted according to them until a person(usually an analyst) listens to it. Head of NSA put the flow of data being recorded/month in petabytes(PBS NOVA “The Spy Factory”). Even if your a citizen they can hold off obtaining a warrant for quite some time under the revised FISA legislation.
Kimmo

That’s pretty damn scary.

Here’s hoping the idea doesn’t catch on…
NecrophiliacZombie

Totalitarian state of TR is now “owned” by a totalitarian governing party, AKP, under the pretence of freedom for the people. This governmental body is modulating itself from a “1984″ type to a “Brave New World” type system of control. Within 7 years of power, her people have seen many bans, from books to the internet. For example this is the first year of youtube ban. Recently Richarddawkins.net has been banned, by a court order issued following a paranoid schizophreniac’s, Adnan Oktar’s application to do so. Currently national television, TRT, is broadcasting news that claim “theory of evolution has failed”. Websites that defend atheism are also included in this ban, so is geocities.com. Porn sites are being made unaccessible each and every day (regardless of what they host). Turkey is also testing “intelligent”, electronic id cards in the city called Bolu. As you may know these id cards are being used in Dubai where the state can monitor, and share information with other oppressor states, like USA. What must also be added that in Turkey, presumably all telephone lines are tapped, even generals, journalists, judges or PM himself (his claim!)are not spared. As stated in the article, Turkey is trying to develop its own search engine. Now, this would be really useful. Check out the top ten countries that search for the word “porn”, Turkey is numero uno! Guys and gals of Turkey are craving for some action. Have i mentioned there is strict censorship on tv broadcasts? Well, did somebody say minorities? Homosexuals and transvestites are definitely the most oppressed in Turkey, since government, AKP, has chosen to close gay organisations, since they offend the morals of “general public” (who search for “porn”). People here ALREADY under surveillance from birth, internet is just a new addition to the list.
phisrow

Luckily the Justice and Development Party are a bunch warm, friendly, harmless, increasingly anti-secular, guys, so there is no way that this could go badly…
dainel

That’s not enough. You’ll also need laws to prevent people using any other email services. But it is a wonderful idea. I think China should adopt this. As should the US. You know to catch all those “terrorists”.
drax

…”the government doesn’t want communications data to ‘leave Turkey and then come back’.”
There’s a modicum of common sense in this, from the Turkish government’s point of view.
Almost all the big email providers are US companies and, as we’ve seen on this site and others over the years, they will routinely hand over users personal data to the NSA, Homeland Sec or whoever, without a court order or any judicial oversight.
A lot of sensitive data passes through those accounts, and the US government can look at any or all of it without the users knowledge.
It’s probably futile but yeah it makes sense to keep as much information as possible *out* of the hands of foreign powers. Business deals, patent ideas, hirings and firings, it’s all valuable to “US interests”. These two countries have never been best of friends and only 9% of the Turkish people have a favourable view of the US, that’s lower than Pakistan or Palestine.
mdh

how do you say “You’re doing it wrong” in Turkish?
- Anonymous
  
  @mdh: “Anani al da git”
erenemre

Ah yes, unfortunately some people are not aware of how big is the problem.

I wrote a couple of things yesterday night: http://erenemre.com/460
erenemre

ah @mdh that is “yanlis yapiyorsunuz” :)
hadlock

Free email from birth is a pretty neat idea. To use it for censorship, not so much. But imagine getting mom or grandma to use state owned email! “Oh hey mom, you’ve got problems with your email? Yeah? Have you tried calling city hall about that?” Boom. Done. I always thought universities should provide you with email for life once you graduate, or at least email forwarding services.

Government sponsored email would mean adding countless free internet terminals around the country so people could access their accounts too. Probably a dramatic upswing in internet cafes too. Giving internet access to the masses isn’t always a bad thing.
- Anonymous
  
  Where do you live, that city hall provides a quick resolution to your problems? It sounds very nice.
Anonymous

@phisrow – because Turkish secularists are such peace-loving, democratic guys who don’t persecute minorities, too!

generally though, makes sense from a strategic viewpoint. digital sovereignty will increasingly become a big issue, and with Turkey touted to become a major power within the next half-century, owning their own digital culture and all the information contained therein would be a smart idea.
Anonymous

Of course this is CRITICAL to ensure that nobody is smuggling Qs Ws or Xs illegaly into the country.
sedyst

it is a pitty to see nationalist paranoia at work. the ruling party akp succumbs to that hysteria just like any past government in turkey. they bank on the gravity of nationalist talk and the authority of the “devlet baba” (father state) taking care of the security of its citizens. grrr.

on a related topic, just saw this:
https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dGNQZGVLNUQ3SHhxYXU3ZjZsS3JsZVE6MA

which is about this:
We are compiling a list of oaths, dirty words, racist and sexual derogatory and other offensive terms to build new language models and software tools. The notable increase in public and private threats communicated via the Internet to Congress and the White House makes it important to do basic research that identifies the precursors of aggressive or violent behavior. Adding your uniquely offensive contribution to the list, with an associated rating from 1-7, with 1 representing a mildly offensive term and 7 representing the most foul term, will advance this work.

The research is jointly sponsored by QDAP & Texifter, LLC and directed by Dr. Stuart Shulman, QDAP Director and Texifter President & CEO.

and more:
“In some cases, we are talking about making it easier for law enforcement
officials to preempt aggressive or violent behavior. In others, we are
looking at modeling the behavior of depraved citizens who use rhetoric for
purposes that go beyond worldly comprehension.”
from the open archives of the Air-l mailing list.

preemptive police force and depraved citizens all in one paragraph. so, it turns out, the turkish governments desire to filter “sensibilities” is a global phenomena. in the us, it happens to be easier to package it nicely using a sort of political correctness.*scary*

at the same time, the tr govenment’s rhetoric of justifying surveillance reifies (digital) nationalism. but then, dr. shulman can sell his software to the turkish government, and it is once again a global village. great.