Monday, January 02, 2017
2017: the year of the snoopers' charter
We are in the second day of 2017, but the fourth day of the UK Government's controversial Investigatory Powers Act being in force.
As the Independent reports,the measure places Britain under some of the widest-ranging spying powers ever seen. It includes the ability to collect the browsing records of everyone in the country and have them read by authorities as diverse as the Food Standards Agency and the Department for Work and Pensions as well as new powers to gather and retain data on citizens, and new ways to force technology companies and others to hand over the data that they have about people to intelligence agencies.
The paper says that many of the most invasive powers in the bill haven't yet gone into force. That includes, for instance, the collection of those Internet Connection Records, which has been postponed until the government and internet companies have worked out how they can collect such information safely:
The government has argued that the powers introduced in the bill are necessary to allow intelligence agencies and police to stop modern crime and prosecute the people involved in it.
But Bella Sankey, Amnesty’s policy director, said that it was a "sad day" when the bill passed into law last month.
“The Home Secretary is right that the Government has a duty to protect us, but these measures won’t do the job," she said then. "Instead they open every detail of every citizen’s online life up to state eyes, drowning the authorities in data and putting innocent people’s personal information at massive risk.
"This new law is world-leading – but only as a beacon for despots everywhere. The campaign for a surveillance law fit for the digital age continues, and must now move to the courts."
Legal challenges are underway to try and strike out some of the most draconian measures as being contrary to natural justice. We can only hope that they are successful.
As the Independent reports,the measure places Britain under some of the widest-ranging spying powers ever seen. It includes the ability to collect the browsing records of everyone in the country and have them read by authorities as diverse as the Food Standards Agency and the Department for Work and Pensions as well as new powers to gather and retain data on citizens, and new ways to force technology companies and others to hand over the data that they have about people to intelligence agencies.
The paper says that many of the most invasive powers in the bill haven't yet gone into force. That includes, for instance, the collection of those Internet Connection Records, which has been postponed until the government and internet companies have worked out how they can collect such information safely:
The government has argued that the powers introduced in the bill are necessary to allow intelligence agencies and police to stop modern crime and prosecute the people involved in it.
But Bella Sankey, Amnesty’s policy director, said that it was a "sad day" when the bill passed into law last month.
“The Home Secretary is right that the Government has a duty to protect us, but these measures won’t do the job," she said then. "Instead they open every detail of every citizen’s online life up to state eyes, drowning the authorities in data and putting innocent people’s personal information at massive risk.
"This new law is world-leading – but only as a beacon for despots everywhere. The campaign for a surveillance law fit for the digital age continues, and must now move to the courts."
Legal challenges are underway to try and strike out some of the most draconian measures as being contrary to natural justice. We can only hope that they are successful.
