Snooping bill ‘not thought through’
Proposals in draft legislation would let the government conduct the ‘mass surveillance of innocent people’ under the cloak of investigating terrorist and criminal organisations, the Law Society has claimed.
The only other countries with mass surveillance systems similar in scope to those proposed by the UK government are China, Iran and Kazakhstan, the Society added. It pointed to the abuse of existing surveillance powers by local authorities, some of which have used the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) to investigate trivial offences, rather than the terrorist and criminal activities for which the legislation was drafted.
Claimed abuses, listed in a report published this month by Big Brother Watch, include using RIPA to test-purchase a puppy and investigate a fraudulent escort agency. Such practices should be tackled before giving even greater surveillance powers to the authorities, the Society said.
The draft Communications Data Bill proposes requiring internet service providers and telecoms firms to obtain and retain records of internet-based communications, such as emails, instant messaging and social networking. Public authorities would have access to this data when investigating terror groups or criminal gangs.
A Society spokesman said: ‘The government claims its proposals are not intrusive because it is only going to collect communications data, not contents data. But if the government knows the destination of your emails, for instance, then it knows what you are doing.’
He added that the government had ‘not thought through’ the technical demands of its proposals. He said: ‘It is easy to separate the communication data from the content data in an email because emails are standard and you can write a program to do the job. Social media are all written in different ways – there are no standardised protocols – so how can you separate the two types of data?’
Bar Council chairman Michael Todd QC said: ‘It is inconceivable that the government should be contemplating granting authorities greater surveillance powers in the face of wide-ranging opposition, when the current regime is wide open to abuse.’
Comments
Less power to the people..
At the onset of any legislation that grants more surveillance powers there is a promise from the government in power that such legislation would not be used unwisely. Yet, under the previous administration we had seen legislation drafted to combat terrorism had been used to charge a septuagenarian holocaust survivor from a Labour party conference. The concept of the modern state is based on consensus driven laws where the citizen sacrifices liberties to be protected by the state. I wonder, to what extent there would cease to be any liberty left for us.
shock horror
government wants to snoop on us, but hasn't really considered how they can sell this to us without it causing too much uproar in the 'liberal' press!! mmm...another step closer to the complete removal of all liberties.
The government have become so
The government have become so obsessed with terrorists and what they need to do to protect us they have crossed the line in breaching privacy. How can snooping on every email be passed as necessary and who is authorised to sign this off. How many staff are needed to monitor this and what is the cost. This should be put before a Judge to decide the facts of urgency and neccesity to allow this.
Councils and others have and will abuse this no end in the name of ...... to cover their backsides it is outrageous. The police and courts have powers to allow telephone taps etc why should an office clerk get these powers proposed. Our rights are being violated by a minority who think they have the God damn right to push this kind of rubbish through.
Lets start by snooping on them first to see what they have to hide as I am sure their will be some vehement objections.
There should be a proper public debate and vote to see if joe public want this and I am sure the answer will be obvious. Once again as usual our politicians think with their heads up their backsides.
The Boot
Somebody should remind these self serving creeps where they derive their 'power' from. You don't have to simply accept this. However as long as we are happy to sit and watch celebrity big brother and consume product we don't need like the good cloned piggies we are, I'm sure the laces that tie the boot of the state that will stamp on our faces forever, will simply get tighter and tighter. Long live apathy and good telly.
Surveillance
The point of any such legislation from governments of the stripe of the coalition or their predecessors (the two are indistinguishable in this) is to increase their control over the populace and hope that, by the time we realise we are in a de facto dictatorship, it will be too late.
Too few people connect this and similar attempts to further restrict our freedoms with other legislation, such as the attempt at secret inquests - designed to block any scrutiny of matters such as deaths in custody and other blatantly fascist behaviour by the various arms of government.