The UN’s new Cybercrime Convention is likely to be ratified by many countries. I would like to know your thoughts on how some of the tools used for anti-censorship and anti-oppression, such as Tor and I2P, will be affected when this is adopted.
The new cybercrime treaty seems to be more about facilitating the exchange of information between states than before. In my opinion, the easier exchange of information would threaten some of the tools used to evade controversial policies and surveillance. For example, no-log VPN have been used to bypass censorship and surveillance from ISP and government. However, the exchange of information between nations could bring information from governments to domestic ISP, threatening the privacy protected by VPN. Repressive governments may be willing to abuse treaties to further increase surveillance and these kinds of information exchanges for reasons such as monitoring dissident movements or preventing terrorism. We also fear that this could be directed not only at no-log VPN, but also at Tor, I2P, etc., and that multistate information exchange could further increase the potential for threats to these tools. In addition, they may begin to share their research findings on as yet unseen malware and forensics for use in illegal surveillance in a more highly collaborative manner.
How do you all see the impact of this treaty when it is ratified?
And while this treaty seems to have been adopted, is it possible to go back to a blank sheet of paper from this stage?
Related articles by th EFF: The UN General Assembly and the Fight Against the Cybercrime Treaty