Egypt unfriended Facebook for Free Basics snoop snub Facebook reportedly had its Free Basics internet service banned in Egypt because it would not meet government demands that it open the service for surveillance. A Reuters report cited two unnamed sources in claiming that the decision by authorities to suspend Free Basics in the country on December 30 of last year was due to …
the social networking giant was given unspecified demands to allow surveillance and, when that was refused, the service was suspended. This despite claims from the Egyptian government that Free Basics was actually suspended because it competed with commercial service providers.
Or could they mean competing with government services?
The way I understand it, it is just like the normal internet but limited to certain websites, so it is using HTTPS as well.
As for the claims in the article, they don't make much sense since the Free Basic Internet provided by FaceBrick isn't really provided by FaceBrick, but by a local mobile ISP who enters a partnership with FaceBrick to provide that service. FaceBrick is even trying to convince the local providers that upto 50% of their users endup buying Internet bundles after getting a taste of the Internet through Free Basic! ( https://info.internet.org/en/story/mobile-operator-partnership-program/ ).
The government doesn't need to speak to FaceBrick about allowing snooping since the data isn't routed through their network but through the local ISP's network!.... or that is how I understand it.
P.S. Forgive my EngRish, it isn't my first language.
"As free as first sample from a drug pusher."
It's not for nothing that IT suppliers and drug pushers both describe their income as coming from "users". Now if only those suppliers always gave their wares away, all the time, instead of just the initial hit.
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