On Tue, Jul 9, 2013 at 10:24 PM, Amgine <amgine@wikimedians.ca> wrote:

On 09/07/13 02:52 PM, Luis Villa wrote:
> It does not! I think it is more like:
>
> 1. Don't sign stopwatching.us, or do anything else too US-focused.
> 2. Internally, do be careful with (or as necessary improve) WMF's own
> privacy processes.
> 3. Externally, do (unspecified something).
>
> For #2, see the discussion on the privacy policy revision:
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Privacy_policy/Call_for_input_%282013%29
>
> For #3, we're still very open to doing that unspecified something. We just
> don't see any consensus on what the unspecified something is, other than
> "not something US-focused".
>
> So please, we're definitely open to anything around #3 that can get
> consensus, like (say) James' suggestion that we promote prism-break. We
> would actively *like* to do that (several people here have signed various
> petitions as individuals, for example). We just don't see what that is yet.
>
> Hope that helps clarify-
> Luis

For me, "don't be US centric" doesn't mean "don't do things oriented
toward the USA". It means "don't *only* do things oriented toward the
USA". This was also the impression I received reading through the
comments; not that one should refuse to engage with US-focused actions,
but that one should not *solely* engage with US-focused actions.

I should have been more specific and detailed yesterday; I apologize but was crunched for time.

As long as most of the world's internet traffic passes through the US, we will obviously need to do some things that are targeted at the US government. However, there are two ways you can approach the US government (or any government): are we asking a government to protect everyone? Or are we asking the government to protect only their own citizens, and implicitly or explicitly encouraging taking actions against the rest of the world?

That second category is what I think people are (rightly) concerned about. In other words, we want to be very, very careful not to take positions that could be seen as implicitly or explicitly saying it is OK to spy on non-American members of our community.

For example, a letter to the US government focusing on guaranteeing us the right to be completely transparent for everyone would likely fall into the first category and be acceptable; a letter or petition encouraging the US government "not to spy on American citizens" (as some of these have quite literally been phrased) would likely fall into the latter category and so not be acceptable.

That is what I meant by "US-focused" - I hope it clarifies.

Luis

Luis Villa
Deputy General Counsel
Wikimedia Foundation
415.839.6885 ext. 6810

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