While you were busy making fun of the UK for criminalizing free speech, the UN finalized its Cybercrime Convention which will overrule bank secrecy and criminalize hacking, whistleblowing, and security research.

The convention, which was finalized last friday, drastically expands government surveillance powers and enables the widespread sharing of personal data between UN member states.

The convention mandates the identification, tracing, confiscation and seizure of "proceeds of crime, property, equipment or other instrumentalities" and the collection of real-time traffic and content data on behalf of requesting member states.

It further mandates member states to establish criminal offences for "the concealment or disguise of the true nature, source, location, disposition, movement or ownership of or rights with respect to property" and "the conversion or transfer of property [...] for the purpose of concealing or disguising the illicit origin of the property" when committed intentionally.

As the Electronic Frontier Foundation explains, the convention includes "documents saved on personal computers or notes stored on digital devices. In essence, this means that private unshared thoughts and information are no longer safe. Authorities can compel the preservation, production, or seizure of any electronic data, potentially turning personal devices into spy vectors regardless of whether the information has been communicated".

While the treaty defers most articles to the governance of local laws, it states that states "shall not decline to act [...] on the ground of bank secrecy".

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