ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Christopher Soghoian - Privacy researcher and activist
Christopher Soghoian researches and exposes the high-tech surveillance tools that governments use to spy on their own citizens, and he is a champion of digital privacy rights.

Why you should listen

TED Fellow Christopher Soghoian is a champion of digital privacy rights, with a focus on the role that third-party service providers play in enabling governments to monitor citizens. As the principal technologist at the American Civil Liberties Union, he explores the intersection of federal surveillance and citizen's rights.

Before joining the ACLU, he was the first-ever technologist for the Federal Trade Commision's Division of Privacy and Identity Protection, where he worked on investigations of Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and Netflix. Soghoian is also the creator of Do Not Track, an anti-tracking device that all major web browsers now use, and his work has been cited in court.

More profile about the speaker
Christopher Soghoian | Speaker | TED.com
TED2015

Christopher Soghoian: How to avoid surveillance ... with the phone in your pocket

Filmed:
2,236,919 views

Who is listening in on your phone calls? On a landline, it could be anyone, says privacy activist Christopher Soghoian, because surveillance backdoors are built into the phone system by default, to allow governments to listen in. But then again, so could a foreign intelligence service ... or a criminal. Which is why, says Soghoian, some tech companies are resisting governments' call to build the same backdoors into mobile phones and new messaging systems. From this TED Fellow, learn how some tech companies are working to keep your calls and messages private.
- Privacy researcher and activist
Christopher Soghoian researches and exposes the high-tech surveillance tools that governments use to spy on their own citizens, and he is a champion of digital privacy rights. Full bio

Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.

00:13
For more than 100 years,
0
1343
1729
00:15
the telephone companies have provided
wiretapping assistance to governments.
1
3096
4026
00:19
For much of this time,
this assistance was manual.
2
7146
3538
00:22
Surveillance took place manually
and wires were connected by hand.
3
10708
4118
00:26
Calls were recorded to tape.
4
14850
1750
00:29
But as in so many other industries,
5
17334
2144
00:31
computing has changed everything.
6
19502
1766
00:33
The telephone companies
built surveillance features
7
21725
3023
00:36
into the very core of their networks.
8
24772
2045
00:39
I want that to sink in for a second:
9
27494
1980
00:41
Our telephones and the networks
that carry our calls
10
29498
4260
00:45
were wired for surveillance first.
11
33782
2373
00:48
First and foremost.
12
36179
1403
00:50
So what that means is that
when you're talking to your spouse,
13
38763
3826
00:54
your children, a colleague
or your doctor on the telephone,
14
42613
4322
00:58
someone could be listening.
15
46959
1486
01:00
Now, that someone might
be your own government;
16
48901
2565
01:03
it could also be another government,
a foreign intelligence service,
17
51490
4163
01:07
or a hacker, or a criminal, or a stalker
18
55677
2827
01:10
or any other party that breaks into
the surveillance system,
19
58528
3570
01:14
that hacks into the surveillance system
of the telephone companies.
20
62122
4489
01:19
But while the telephone companies
have built surveillance as a priority,
21
67834
4522
01:24
Silicon Valley companies have not.
22
72380
1816
01:26
And increasingly,
over the last couple years,
23
74523
2519
01:29
Silicon Valley companies have built
strong encryption technology
24
77066
3662
01:32
into their communications products
25
80752
1938
01:34
that makes surveillance
extremely difficult.
26
82714
2266
01:37
For example, many of you
might have an iPhone,
27
85416
2174
01:39
and if you use an iPhone
to send a text message
28
87614
2690
01:42
to other people who have an iPhone,
29
90328
2177
01:44
those text messages
cannot easily be wiretapped.
30
92529
3010
01:47
And in fact, according to Apple,
31
95563
1828
01:49
they're not able to even see
the text messages themselves.
32
97415
2891
01:52
Likewise, if you use FaceTime
to make an audio call
33
100662
3866
01:56
or a video call with one of your
friends or loved ones,
34
104552
2611
01:59
that, too, cannot be easily wiretapped.
35
107187
2129
02:01
And it's not just Apple.
36
109340
1545
02:03
WhatsApp, which is now owned by Facebook
37
111315
2352
02:05
and used by hundreds of millions
of people around the world,
38
113691
2858
02:08
also has built strong
encryption technology into its product,
39
116573
3507
02:12
which means that people
in the Global South can easily communicate
40
120104
3507
02:15
without their governments,
often authoritarian,
41
123635
2810
02:18
wiretapping their text messages.
42
126469
1734
02:21
So, after 100 years of being able
to listen to any telephone call --
43
129599
4945
02:26
anytime, anywhere --
44
134568
2554
02:29
you might imagine that government
officials are not very happy.
45
137146
3131
02:32
And in fact, that's what's happening.
46
140301
1786
02:34
Government officials are extremely mad.
47
142111
2219
02:36
And they're not mad because
these encryption tools are now available.
48
144354
3875
02:40
What upsets them the most
49
148253
1818
02:42
is that the tech companies have built
encryption features into their products
50
150095
4167
02:46
and turned them on by default.
51
154286
1873
02:48
It's the default piece that matters.
52
156547
1970
02:50
In short, the tech companies
have democratized encryption.
53
158541
3775
02:55
And so, government officials
like British Prime Minister David Cameron,
54
163165
3797
02:58
they believe that all communications --
emails, texts, voice calls --
55
166986
4847
03:03
all of these should be
available to governments,
56
171857
2588
03:06
and encryption is making that difficult.
57
174469
2102
03:09
Now, look -- I'm extremely sympathetic
to their point of view.
58
177478
3384
03:12
We live in a dangerous time
in a dangerous world,
59
180886
2532
03:15
and there really are bad people out there.
60
183442
2000
03:17
There are terrorists and other
serious national security threats
61
185466
3115
03:20
that I suspect we all want
the FBI and the NSA to monitor.
62
188605
3977
03:25
But those surveillance
features come at a cost.
63
193345
2703
03:29
The reason for that is
64
197357
1155
03:30
that there is no such thing
as a terrorist laptop,
65
198536
2486
03:33
or a drug dealer's cell phone.
66
201046
1507
03:34
We all use the same
communications devices.
67
202902
2963
03:38
What that means is that
if the drug dealers' telephone calls
68
206577
3675
03:42
or the terrorists' telephone calls
can be intercepted,
69
210276
2545
03:44
then so can the rest of ours, too.
70
212845
1996
03:46
And I think we really need to ask:
71
214865
1627
03:48
Should a billion people
around the world be using devices
72
216516
3127
03:51
that are wiretap friendly?
73
219667
1419
03:55
So the scenario of hacking of surveillance
systems that I've described --
74
223407
3748
03:59
this is not imaginary.
75
227179
2111
04:01
In 2009,
76
229622
1152
04:02
the surveillance systems that Google
and Microsoft built into their networks --
77
230798
4047
04:06
the systems that they use to respond
to lawful surveillance requests
78
234869
3491
04:10
from the police --
79
238384
1166
04:11
those systems were compromised
by the Chinese government,
80
239574
2668
04:14
because the Chinese government
wanted to figure out
81
242266
2397
04:16
which of their own agents
the US government was monitoring.
82
244687
2892
04:20
By the same token,
83
248269
1271
04:21
in 2004, the surveillance system
built into the network
84
249564
3419
04:25
of Vodafone Greece --
Greece's largest telephone company --
85
253007
3174
04:28
was compromised by an unknown entity,
86
256205
2579
04:30
and that feature,
the surveillance feature,
87
258808
2040
04:32
was used to wiretap
the Greek Prime Minister
88
260872
2278
04:35
and members of the Greek cabinet.
89
263174
1719
04:37
The foreign government or hackers
who did that were never caught.
90
265313
3064
04:41
And really, this gets to the very problem
with these surveillance features,
91
269955
3697
04:45
or backdoors.
92
273676
1260
04:46
When you build a backdoor
into a communications network
93
274960
3202
04:50
or piece of technology,
94
278186
1301
04:51
you have no way of controlling
who's going to go through it.
95
279511
3048
04:55
You have no way of controlling
96
283243
1445
04:56
whether it'll be used by your side
or the other side,
97
284712
2770
04:59
by good guys, or by bad guys.
98
287506
1911
05:01
And so for that reason,
I think that it's better
99
289980
2519
05:04
to build networks
to be as secure as possible.
100
292523
2652
05:08
Yes, this means that in the future,
101
296271
2409
05:10
encryption is going to make
wiretapping more difficult.
102
298704
2566
05:13
It means that the police
are going to have a tougher time
103
301280
2669
05:15
catching bad guys.
104
303949
1336
05:17
But the alternative would mean
to live in a world
105
305309
2556
05:19
where anyone's calls or anyone's
text messages could be surveilled
106
307889
3631
05:23
by criminals, by stalkers
and by foreign intelligence agencies.
107
311544
3726
05:27
And I don't want to live
in that kind of world.
108
315294
2312
05:30
And so right now,
you probably have the tools
109
318102
2715
05:32
to thwart many kinds
of government surveillance
110
320841
2318
05:35
already on your phones
and already in your pockets,
111
323183
2983
05:38
you just might not realize how strong
and how secure those tools are,
112
326190
3779
05:41
or how weak the other ways
you've used to communicate really are.
113
329993
3529
05:46
And so, my message to you is this:
114
334737
2127
05:50
We need to use these tools.
115
338110
1653
05:52
We need to secure our telephone calls.
116
340239
2304
05:54
We need to secure our text messages.
117
342567
1849
05:56
I want you to use these tools.
118
344950
1652
05:58
I want you to tell your loved ones,
I want you to tell your colleagues:
119
346626
3356
06:02
Use these encrypted communications tools.
120
350006
2424
06:04
Don't just use them
because they're cheap and easy,
121
352454
2676
06:07
but use them because they're secure.
122
355154
2004
06:09
Thank you.
123
357182
1255
06:10
(Applause)
124
358461
3586

▲Back to top

ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Christopher Soghoian - Privacy researcher and activist
Christopher Soghoian researches and exposes the high-tech surveillance tools that governments use to spy on their own citizens, and he is a champion of digital privacy rights.

Why you should listen

TED Fellow Christopher Soghoian is a champion of digital privacy rights, with a focus on the role that third-party service providers play in enabling governments to monitor citizens. As the principal technologist at the American Civil Liberties Union, he explores the intersection of federal surveillance and citizen's rights.

Before joining the ACLU, he was the first-ever technologist for the Federal Trade Commision's Division of Privacy and Identity Protection, where he worked on investigations of Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and Netflix. Soghoian is also the creator of Do Not Track, an anti-tracking device that all major web browsers now use, and his work has been cited in court.

More profile about the speaker
Christopher Soghoian | Speaker | TED.com