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| Vanessa Barbara. Photo: Nino Andrés |
Earlier this week Brazil's president, Dilma Rousseff's gave a
blistering speech to the UN general assembly which embodied the most serious diplomatic blowback yet to the NSA, which has been caught snooping on her personal communications. The
Times published a debate about the fallout
here. From Barbara's op-ed,
Have a nice day, NSA:
Brazil is
included in a group of key countries being closely monitored by the
N.S.A. under the rubric “Friends, Enemies, or Problems?”
...The United States has suggested that its interception of data also aims
to protect other nations against terrorism. But Ms. Rousseff had an
answer for that, too: “Brazil, Mr. President, knows how to protect
itself.”
The country’s strategy on that matter does not limit itself to
diplomatic grumpiness. Ms. Rousseff has also proposed establishing “a
civilian multilateral framework for the governance and use of the
Internet.” It would ensure “freedom of expression, security and respect
for human rights” by protecting personal information online.
But for now, we citizens have our own plan. It has become something of a
joke among my friends in Brazil to, whenever you write a personal
e-mail, include a few polite lines addressed to the agents of the
N.S.A., wishing them a good day or a Happy Thanksgiving. Sometimes I’ll
add a few extra explanations and footnotes about the contents of the
message, summarizing it and clarifying some of the Portuguese words that
could be difficult to translate.
Other people have gone so far as to send nonsensical e-mails just to confuse N.S.A. agents. For
example: first use some key words to attract their surveillance
filters, like “chemical brothers,” “chocolate bombs” or “stop holding my
heart hostage, my emotions are like a blasting of fundamentalist
explosion” (one of my personal favorites, inspired by an online sentence-generator designed to confound the N.S.A.)
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