This is a followup piece to the article I wrote last week on the Syrian refugee crisis.

         You already know all the details surrounding the attacks in Paris beginning on November 13, South Africa the following week, and the subsequent raids, arrests, and evacuations since. You’ve heard and read all the news about it. So have i.
         But one piece of the puzzle that puzzles me is that the news media has strangely stayed away from the issue of privacy as it relates to technology. ISIS, IS, and related groups operate online. The internet is their means of reaching out to satellite cells in countries far from Syria. They use encrypted channels that only half a percent of the general population even knows about, that only half of that percentage knows how to get to. They rely on the vast grey areas of the law and ability when it comes to privacy on the internet.
         Given what’s happened in the past couple weeks compounded with the dilemma that the world faces in vetting refugees, however, it’s time to end our fight for privacy. We need the internet to be as open as it ca be for our own safety. As President Hollande of France said, we’re at war. Privacy must come second to safety now.
         The first step to opening up the internet so that agencies around the world can access and apprehend terrorists operating on the internet is to master what’s known as the “dark-web”.
         This “dark-web” as it’s sometimes referred to, is a huge grey area and something that needs deeper discussion and revelation. The internet, of course, isn’t like the physical world we live in. Google Maps’ satellite view of the entire planet is a great analogy. You can see any part of the world through satellite imagery right from your computer. And you can see it all from a birds eye or right down to street level. Hell, now you can see it right from your smart watch. Even if you might not be able to reach it by car, plane, or train, you can see it. And pinpoint any location and you can generally get directions to it from your point of origin. The dark web isn’t so accessible. The dark-web is basically a parallel universe to the one we use every day, for purposes of this article we’ll refer to it as the “normal-web". The dark-web operates in a space that is encrypted and requires specific and advanced software, skill, and sometimes hardware.
The dark-web was born, if I may use that word, as a place where the “elite” hackers can stay on the grid but off the radar from any snooping, spying, etc. from bodies of authority. It’s a place where all kinds of underground activity takes place. Some of what goes on down there is legal, but most of it isn’t. It’s also a place where you really don’t need to carry a driver’s license to drive. Unlike the normal-web, you can cruise around with a hidden IP-address (the number that identifies your device to the internet) completely anonymously. Thus, it’s the perfect place for ISIS to lie low and secretly disseminate information and instruction all without a clear identity. Imagine a dark scary alley way in a red light district. You don’t know what goes on in there and as someone who only cruises the normal-web, you look the other way and hurry on by.
         There are two problems with the existence of the dark-web. The first is that, as previously stated, it’s just like the normal-web. It’s infinite space. It’s hard enough to police the normal-web, much less the dark-web. To turn over every rock, shine a light into every nook and cranny, it’s going to take millions of hours and millions of men and women working on it. The second problem is that, as also previously stated, the dark-web is a place that even the most tech savvy consider uncharted territory. Go into work tomorrow morning and ask your IT manager if he knows how to get to and navigate the dark-web. Chances are he’ll say no. This means we’ll need to rapidly train people all around the world to be able to cruise the dark-web in patrol cars without GPS. That’s going to take a long time and the dark forces that wander the dark-web have a pretty big head start.
         Enter Anonymous. You’ve heard of them, they’re the group that makes announcements cloaked in black with Guy Fawkes masks. They appear at first glance as though they’re the dark-web’s evil ambassadors, but in reality, they stand for justice on both the normal-web and the dark-web. Anonymous is not a government organization, nor a public organization. We don’t know their names, how many of them there are, or if they have a leader. And yet, they’re our best hope for survival on the internet. Anonymous is a group of hackers that, in my opinion, has more intellect, more power, and more training than the NSA. And given that they all work for themselves and their own courage and convictions as opposed to money and a government, I believe they have more motivation and less political corruption. If anyone can take down ISIS’ access to its main lifeline, the internet, we’ll be one step closer to their extinction. We’ve reached
         Now let’s bring things a little closer to home. In fact, let’s go into your home, into your mobile phone. If you use an iPhone, you probably use iMessage as a channel of communication with other iPhone users. It’s a great feature of Apple’s iOS operating system and has revolutionized messaging for iOS device users. It’s given us the simple ability to see whether our message has sent, and if allowed, read. It’s also given us a higher level of privacy when it comes to our communications. iMessages, unlike regular SMS messages (when the bubbles go from blue to green), are sent through encrypted servers owned by Apple. Apple has stated in the past, in response to FAA requests, that it is unable to intercept iMessages sent between users, the way that a carrier can intercept and view SMS messages. iMessage can also use email addresses instead of ten-digit phone numbers and iMessage can be used pretty anonymously. All the end user needs to do is sign up for an iCloud account with an email address. This is great for iOS users, but what about when a terrorist organization is using it and taking advantage of the fact that it is encrypted.
         This heightened level of security isn’t just a trait of iOS and iMessage. It was the trait of BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) that made it so appealing as a product and feature to BlackBerry users back in the day. Businesses and their workers could communicate via BBM with the peace of mind that any sensitive information that they send would be sent through an encrypted channel.
         Aside from iMessage and BBM, there are lots of new apps that allow communications via encrypted channels. Most of the relevant apps that allow people to communicate internationally (WhatsApp, Skype, Facebook Messenger, etc.) tout privacy as a key selling point.
         Again, for the general population, this is great. Privacy for the end user has been a huge center of debate over the past couple years and arguably something that the user should be entitled to. Prior to the attacks in Paris, the first in the western world, I argued for privacy.
         I have always been okay with knowing that the government could be reading every character I typed. I guess I grew up in a world where I know that by using this technology, I forfeit some of my civil liberties and most of my privacy. I don’t expect privacy when being online. I know that it’s very possible for people to steal my credentials when I enter my credit card number on Nordstrom Rack’s website. And yes, I would like some privacy, but I don’t expect it. I also don’t really need it when it comes to the government snooping in my correspondence. I don’t engage in terroristic behavior or any other illegal activity. If the government goes through my email, they’ll just find lots of receipts from online shopping.
         There are others who understandably don’t share my views. I get that some people really want their privacy and that’s totally understandable. Sure, why wouldn’t you? It’s something you expect in the real world, it’s something you expect online.
         But let’s go back to the idea about the internet being a big, huge, infinite grey area. When it comes to foiling terror plots, the government does hack and spy, but also relies on terrorists making mistakes and being sloppy in covering their tracks. The truth of the matter is that while we have good hackers and a strong understanding of technology, ISIS has proven that they do too. In the wake of these attacks and the sheer amount of infiltration that we now know ISIS has been able to accomplish, should we open our minds to completely opening our internet? This is no longer a world where terror plots can be discovered by intercepting mail, telegraphs, and film slides. There are going to be messages, files, etc. that slip through on encrypted channels that might lead to an attack. By giving up even just a little bit of privacy, we might be able to at least slow down their progress.
         If you’re still with me, I applaud you. I’ll be the first to admit that even as a tech-savvy individual who grew up in the internet age that I don’t understand all of what goes on online. I don’t know how to access the dark-web or send things through encrypted channels. I don’t know the power our government has or the strength Anonymous has. All I know is that we need to asses the state of our infinite internet and we need to do it soon.
         I urge you to think about giving up your privacy for the greater good, and understand that we’re on the cusp of a very real, very scary age of uncharted territory that even George Orwell couldn’t have imagined.