Brazil is carrying through with plans to divorce US-based Internet

Shawn Knight

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brazil keeping promise avoid internet nsa united states privacy spying edward snowden transatlantic cable

Brazil declared intentions to disconnect itself from the US-controlled Internet last year due to privacy concerns and it appears they weren’t kidding. The country is preparing to spend $185 million on a fiber optic cable that’ll stretch roughly 3,500 miles from the city of Fortaleza in Brazil across the Atlantic Ocean to Portugal.

The project, headed up by state-owned telecom Telebras, won’t rely on help from any US companies.

brazil keeping promise avoid internet nsa united states privacy spying edward snowden transatlantic cable

Brazil wasn’t exactly thrilled when it learned last year that the NSA had been spying on them for years. Telebras president Francisco Ziober Filho told Bloomberg that the issue of data integrity and vulnerability is always a concern for any telecom company but the NSA revelations prompted them to step up their audits to check for security vulnerabilities in foreign-made equipment.

Brazil aside, the bigger story here is how the NSA revelations are having an impact on the economics of US-based technology companies. More often than not, it’s more expensive and complex to replace existing infrastructure but those planning new projects still have time to look to non-US companies.

The Information Technology & Innovation Foundation believes US companies could miss out on as much as $35 billion in revenue through 2016 over the matter.

The obvious financial winners here are the non-US technology companies that may have otherwise been overlooked for contract work.

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Why would they do this? The U.S. will still be able to spy on them, just with a higher ping. They're just slowing down their own internet by doing this (if they replace multiple pipes with only one pipe).
 
Good move! Down with the USA spies! :)

The funny side is, they have been doing it for some many years, and will continue to do so regardless of what Brazil or someone else does. You cut the cable, they will set a spy satellite above you. You cover your head with a roof, they will sell you Snickers bars with micro-transmitters :)One way or another they will find a way to crawl up your anus.

Might as well take it easy and bend over... Still, they can't beat Brazil in football :)
 
Why would they do this? The U.S. will still be able to spy on them, just with a higher ping. They're just slowing down their own internet by doing this (if they replace multiple pipes with only one pipe).
If I was the NSA, I would just set up shop in Brazil. Why enter through the internet, when you can order a hook up from Telebras?
 
I wouldn't be surprised to hear that the NSA already has installations in Brazil via the CIA and other intelligence agencies. These have been in place for decades and to assume they can be vetted just shows their own lack of sophistication. With all the interconnect ability of technology it's simply silly to think that any move won't have a counter move in place relatively quickly ... after all, that is what the intelligence and counter intelligence business is all about ....
 
I only hope that, regardless of those measures working, and I'm inclined to think they won't, it eventually leads to better Internet connections. I currently reside in São Paulo and I have 35mb down and 20mb up Internet, paying the equivalent to US$ 23 monthly, which is considered great for Brazilian standards. On December, though, I'm moving to my wife's birthplace, where the fastest Internet is 3mb down and 0.2mb up, priced at US$ 40. I can barely wait to spend 3 days downloading my every new purchase on steam.
 
Brazil really needs to make their own fast connection to Europe. US internet sucks and is extremely expensive.
This won't make the internet any faster; in fact it will be slower to access sites in the US (more hops). Is this Brazil's way of creating an intranet on the internet? This will only give them a faster connection to EU sites.
 
Brazil really needs to make their own fast connection to Europe. US internet sucks and is extremely expensive.
This won't make the internet any faster; in fact it will be slower to access sites in the US (more hops). Is this Brazil's way of creating an intranet on the internet? This will only give them a faster connection to EU sites.
Many US companies have mirrors across the globe esp in EU.
 
If they offer unlimited talk, text and data for $25 a month, I'm canceling my T-Mobile account and moving to Brazil.
I'm not so sure of what you are talking about, I had always used only "computer Internet" until two weeks ago, when I acquired my first smartphone. Most of the time, I use my wifi and very rarely 3g. Never heard of being able to share one single plan among both devices, if that's what you meant. (sorry if I got that wrong). But yeah, standard Internet is unlimited for everyone. They have tried implementing limits and caps but it never worked, the details were super hazy and every time someone got capped, they would bring a lawsuit and the ISPs would invariably lose, so they just gave up on that. Talk and texting is very cheap, as long as it's among the same telephone service provider or to landlines. Otherwise, it's rather expensive.
On the other hand, 3g has very clear limits, but it is dirty cheap.
But then again, Sao Paulo is more of country within Brazil and nothing that happens here should be, in the least, considered a reflection of Brazilian reality.
 
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I only hope that, regardless of those measures working, and I'm inclined to think they won't, it eventually leads to better Internet connections. I currently reside in São Paulo and I have 35mb down and 20mb up Internet, paying the equivalent to US$ 23 monthly, which is considered great for Brazilian standards. On December, though, I'm moving to my wife's birthplace, where the fastest Internet is 3mb down and 0.2mb up, priced at US$ 40. I can barely wait to spend 3 days downloading my every new purchase on steam.

You must be quite young.
 
I find it disturbing that the United States continues to get caught red-handed in their efforts to gather intelligence. Have we become so careless and complacent about these things to the point that they happen on a regular basis. And now we just consider them to be normal news. I think this is a definite sign of the dwindling capabilities of our nation in the downward spiral the lies ahead.
 
No idea how more secure this will make them, but is a big political gesture to extend to the USA the 'rigid digit' to express their displeasure with the spying, and by using non-American companies to build it.
 
No idea how more secure this will make them, but is a big political gesture to extend to the USA the 'rigid digit' to express their displeasure with the spying, and by using non-American companies to build it.
Oh rats, now it will take us a few milliseconds longer to find out how much of the Amazon Rain Forest they've destroyed today.
 
How naive to think that the US is the only country spying on internet traffic.

They're the only ones that got caught, so in fact the others are doing it better.
 
How naive to think that the US is the only country spying on internet traffic.

They're the only ones that got caught, so in fact the others are doing it better.
In the same context as, "the dumbest sociopaths are the ones in jail", the "smartest, most dangerous sociopaths, are still on the street".
 
In other words; a sociopath only has two option, jail or politics. I'm fairly certain there is a grey area in there somewhere. Perhaps is right outside @captaincranky's window.
I think you, and the guest above, missed two salient employment opportunities where the ultra self involved needs of the true sociopath can be put to maximum effect, the law and banking.

Not to mention the "gray area", would be the gray suits they wear to try and blend in.
 
And yet Google and Algar are going together to build a connection between Florida and various points in Brazil.
 
Lazy question, just read the article again


Temporarily, probably. However most people are willing to pay the price not to be spied on
Read my comment as a whole and why would you answer a rhetorical question? There's no reason the NSA won't be able to spy on them, it's just going to go through different pipes.
 
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