Activists Fight Back With High-Tech Civil Disobedience

Software engineer and entrepreneur Jeff Lyon sits next to a computer showing the “Flagger” program he developed in San Jose, Calif. on Friday, Oct. 11, 2013. Lyon spent Labor Day weekend developing the software that adds words like “blow up” and “pressure cooker” to web addresses that users visit. “The goal here is to get a critical mass of people flooding the Internet with noise and make a statement of civil disobedience,î he said. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)

As government surveillance programs are exposed, activists are fighting back with high-tech civil disobedience, entrepreneurs want to cash in on privacy concerns, Internet users want to keep snoops out of their computers and lawmakers want to establish stricter parameters.

Policy makers, privacy advocates and political leaders around the world have been outraged at the near weekly disclosures from former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden that expose sweeping U.S. government surveillance programs.