Resumen
Governments concerned with national-security threats use the Internet to gather intelligence from communications traffic that transits local facilities. This surveillance is expanding — to the detriment of communications privacy.

Resumen
Countries are increasingly adopting legislation that provides for preventive surveillance and the massive collection of communications data without either adequate procedural limitations or strict oversight of the activities. The fact that Internet traffic is supranational in character offers a promising new avenue for intelligence gathering by targeting international communications originating from, terminating in, or simply passing through a given country and subjecting it to the local standards of legal interception. International agreements that guarantee the right to communications privacy should play a more significant role to uphold the level of protection against unfettered surveillance powers. Because of the possibility that many Big Brothers may be watching, as individuals people lose out when they communicate via the Internet. But the privacy of the individual is only one part of this complex issue; business is another.