Turkey Is Building Domestic Replacements For Gmail and Google
from the national-culture-and-values dept
Turkey has a long history of blocking Internet services. It's become such a thing, there's even a site called TurkeyBlocks that is exclusively about this phenomenon. A couple of recent stories on the site suggest the Turkish government is aiming to tighten its local control over the online world even more. First, in order to prevent people circumventing social media shutdowns, the Turkish authorities are going after Tor:
The Turkey Blocks internet censorship watchdog has identified and verified that restrictions on the Tor anonymity network and Tor Browser are now in effect throughout Turkey. Our study indicates that service providers have successfully complied with a government order to ban VPN services.
But even that is not enough it seems. Here's the latest plan:
Turkey is building a domestic search engine and email service compatible with national culture and values, according to statements made by Ahmet Arslan, Minister of Communication, in a television interview on Friday.
Minister Arslan explained the urgency of the plans in the live show on NTV, citing the need to store user data within the country and ensure that communications can be analysed domestically. Details such as the service's name, logo and organisation structure have yet to be announced.
It's interesting to see data localization being invoked here, just as it was in Russia. Fear of surveillance by the US seems to be one reason for the move, but the second part about allowing communications to be "analysed domestically" is also noteworthy. It could be a reflection of the fact that Gmail uses encrypted connections that prevent the Turkish authorities from monitoring who is saying what. One obvious step would be to ban Gmail and Google completely in Turkey in order to force people there to use the new domestic offerings. That would allow the government to monitor its citizens more closely, and to control the flow of online data more strictly.
Follow me @glynmoody on Twitter or identi.ca, and +glynmoody on Google+
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: blocking, censorship, data localization, email, fragmentation, search, surveillance, turkey
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: (look of disbelief)
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: (look of disbelief)
I found it astonishing that someone would not consider Erdogan a dictator. You think he is not?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: (look of disbelief)
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: (look of disbelief)
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
Is that anyway to speak to your elders?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
IoT devices: the new telescreens.
They're always listening in your home. Amazon Echo even has a button used to notify Amazon that you're about to talk about something particularly interesting.
How similar are telescreens to smart TVs equipped with a mic and camera for video conferencing?
Snowden revealed the government is always listening, and saves everything just in case it is needed later. After all, it's not a privacy violation if they merely store it and don't search it.
Don't forget the whole spiel about secret courts, warrants, arrests, secret trials, secret evidence, convictions, secret prisons, etc. And for profit prisons. New for profit policing.
It's really happening. What affect will the incoming administration have?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
- can't spy on me with Echo when I do not have one
- My tv is dumb and I like it that way
- I realize there are many more vectors
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Well, it is a streamlinging effort..
The permission to let the government search through your email and search history can be given in the TOS while a law can be introduced that forced everyone to use this service.
Citizen rights are unimportant (at least, until the `unimaginable' loss of an election occurs...).
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Well, it is a streamlinging effort..
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Well, it is a streamlinging effort..
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Why is encrypted email so hard still?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Why is encrypted email so hard still?
Just ask people to contact you at https://example.com/contact and whenever you send an email send an email to them saying:
You've got a new message at https://example.com/messages/1 (maybe use something like ZeroBin)
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Why is encrypted email so hard still?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Why is encrypted email so hard still?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Why is encrypted email so hard still?
Yes, it would be easy for them to setup such a system. The issue is that if they encrypt your e-mail then they can't scan them to place "more relevant ads". They need to be able to read your e-mail for their business model to work. These services are not "free" you pay for it with the contents of your e-mails.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Why is encrypted email so hard still?
a) Cost them money to develop
b) Removes a revenue stream
c) Very few users care about
A very bad combination. I would suggest you look up something else. Protonmail works and is easy to set up. You get a small mailbox (500mb, no folders, no IMAP support) for free. Want more, it will cost you ~5$ a month. It is not a perfect system by any stretch of the imagination as of now. Normal PGP support is not there for example, but they are getting there. They have however really nailed the "easy to use" part. You really don't notice encryption is used
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Oh yeah?
Oh yeah?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Adding Country of Turkey to blacklist
[ link to this | view in chronology ]