Conversations That Matter: Have we lost our right to free speech?

‘Contrary to what you believe about democratic governments spying on its citizens, they are.’

Article content

Big Brother is actually watching you and your every move.

Article content

In other words, your privacy rights are being trampled on and they are being violated by governments and big tech companies. Both are egregious abuses of power.

You may shrug it off and say to yourself: “I have nothing to worry about, I live a clean life.”

“Then one day,” says William Binney, a veteran of the US National Security Agency, “you become irritated by an act of overreach by your government. So you decide to exercise your right to freedom of speech and thought and your right to peacefully protest. And you stand in front of City Hall and call out what you believe to be an injustice.

“When you do that, you will be put on a watchlist. They will find you quickly. That’s because you and your data left electronic fingerprints everywhere. And contrary to what you believe about democratic governments spying on its citizens, they are.”

Article content

“They will use the information they gathered about you, against you.”

Binney, a 36-year veteran of the NSA, says what “the government is doing is unconstitutional.”

Binney was granted special recognition by the Allard Prize for International Integrity for blowing the whistle on the NSA for using a program he developed called ThinThread to spy on Americans.

Stuart McNish invited William Binney to join him for a Conversation that Matters about your loss of privacy, both in Canada and the United States.

Please become a Patreon subscriber and support the production of this program, with a $1 pledge here.