Opting out of PRISM, the NSA's global surveillance program

As you will have no doubt have seen in the news, the National Security Agency (NSA), a US government agency, has been running a hitherto top-secret global surveillance program called PRISM, in collaboration with US technology giants Microsoft, Google, Yahoo and Facebook among others (although Twitter was conspicuous by its absence from the leaked presentation slides).

Basically if you visit the website or use an application or Operating System of one of the collaborating companies, PRISM clandestinely logs your online activities. The activities of the NSA were leaked by ex-CIA operative Edward Snowden to Glenn Greenwald and hence the Guardian and the Washington Post (although the Washington Post subsequently heavily edited its story).

This article examines suggested alternative software and services according to the site PRISM Break and gives an analysis of the events. In any case, the Internet needs to be protected from governments and big corporations.

If the UK joins Schengen

Ever travelled from France to Germany, from Switzerland to Norway, or from Spain to Italy? Those of you who have, will have noticed that there are no border controls and no waiting at passport control, whether one travels by air, road, rail or sea. This is because these countries and several other countries (to be precise 22 EU countries, plus Norway, Iceland, and Switzerland) have implemented the Schengen Agreement fully, which includes the abolition of passport controls, although one still needs to bring identification when travelling. Contrary to popular myth, states do not need to have ID cards to implement the Schengen Agreement, passports can still be used as ID, and photo-card driving licenses ought to be accepted as ID too.