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Remembering Jam Echelon Day 2001/1999

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Links and Resources to Echelon Information, plus the 2001 and 1999 link archive from the first Jam Echelon Day are included below for your reference:

2001
http://www.jamechelon.org/

1999

From a report to the European parliament:

"Within Europe, all email, telephone and fax communications are routinely intercepted by the United States National Security Agency, transferring all target information from the European mainland ... to [The headquarter of NSA]... a global surveillance system that stretches around the world to form a targeting system on all of the key Intelsat satellites used to convey most of the world's satellite phone calls, internet, email, faxes and telexes. ...unlike many of the electronic spy systems developed during the cold war, Echelon is designed for primarily non-military targets: governments, organizations and businesses in virtually every country... Five nations share the results with the US as the senior partner ... Britain, Canada, New Zealand and Australia are very much acting as subordinate information servicers."


While the goal of "jamming up" Echelon is a lofty and likely unattainable one, is it not better to signal displeasure at being monitored than passively allow it to happen? We believe so. Privacy should not be something that's considered only after it's been breached.   This website was created with a dual purpose.
The first is obviously to inform people about Echelon's existence and what things they can do (in theory) to "jam it up", either by sending widely-known "trigger words" or (better yet) not allowing themselves to be subjected to random, anonymous eavesdropping by foreign powers. The secondary purpose of the site is to provide links to information and software that does just that -  allows people to secure their email, networks, and operating systems with good practice and cryptographic software of such strength that easy decryption in a reasonable timeframe is not possible for any eavesdropper.

All we are asking you to do is inform your friends. Send them an email on October 21st telling them about Echelon, and by all means include a few, or all, of the "trigger words" from the list. Of course, using them on a regular basis is even more effective.

The European Union discovered that there was little that they could do to address the abolition of Echelon. They issued their report to the World, folded their tents and went home. Well, if Echelon won't go away and won't cease intruding on our privacy, then the least we can do is help them out by making sure they have plenty to do.

View the new media release about "Jam Echelon Day" here.