UK’s Snooper’s Charter Lite…Snooper’s Charter absent from Queen’s speech but there is a reference to new legislation to more accurately record and correlate users with their internet activity

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See article from publicaffairs.linx.net

This session’s Queen’s speech did not contain any explicit mention of the Communications Data Bill, but did make reference to proposals aimed at making it easier for law enforcement to match IP addresses to individuals. My government will continue to reduce crime and protect national security. Legislation will be introduced to reform the way in which offenders are rehabilitated in England and Wales. Legislation will be brought forward to introduce new powers to tackle anti-social behaviour, cut crime and further reform the police. In relation to the problem of matching internet protocol addresses, my government will bring forward proposals to enable the protection of the public and the investigation of crime in cyberspace. The government provides more details in the briefing notes on the Queen’s Speech: [IP] addresses are generally shared between a number of people. In order to know who has actually sent an email or made a Skype call, the police need to know who used a certain IP address at a given point in time. Without this, if a suspect used the internet to communicate instead of making a phone call, it may not be possible for the police to identify them. The Government is looking at ways of addressing this issue with CSPs. It may involve legislation. Commentators have linked these proposals to comments made by Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg in April, suggesting that the government could be considering some sort of intervention relating to IPv6 adoption. Right now, there are not enough IP addresses to go round for all of the devices being used. Temporary addresses are attached to computers and phones while they are online, but the records of these are patchy, which means they cannot easily be matched back to individuals. The police say a clearer picture would be a huge help in their investigations and we should explore how that can be done. — Nick Clegg, writing in The Telegraph

People’s Hero…Nick Clegg announces that the Snooper’s Charter isn’t going to happen

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See article from bigbrotherwatch.org.uk

The Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, has just announced that the Communications Data Bill is dead. He said on LBC: What people dub the snoopers’ charter, that’s not going to happen — certainly with Lib Dems in government. Big Brother Watch commented: Nick Clegg has made the right decision for our economy, for internet security and for our freedom. Recording the websites we look at and who we email would not have made us safer, as some of the country’s leading cyber security academics argued this week. It would have made Britain a less attractive place to start a company and put British companies in the position of being paid by the Government to spy on their customers, something that oppressive regimes around the world would have quickly copied. Rather than spending billions on another Whitehall IT disaster that tramples over our civil liberties and privacy on an unprecedented scale, we should focus on ensuring the police have the skills and training to make use of the huge volume of data that is available. If small, technical changes to existing legislation are required, then they should be properly thought through before being subject to the widespread consultation and comprehensive assessment this plan sorely lacked. Dr Julian Huppert MP, Lib Dem spokesperson for Home Affairs and a member of the Joint Committee on the draft Communications data Bill, said: I am delighted that Nick Clegg has stood up for the British public on this. He was right to demand that these proposals be published as a draft, which gave us all a chance to see just how badly thought through the Home Office proposals were. And he is now right to say that what the Home Office propose is unacceptable. Spending billions of pounds to keep track of every website we go to, and what we do on facebook or google, is simply wrong. If we want to actually cut crime, spend the extra money on the police.

Open Letter to ISPs…Joint letter sent to BT, Sky, Virgin and TalkTalk by ORG, Privacy International and Big Brother Watch, asking ISPs to stand up for their customers.

Read more UK Government Watch at MelonFarmers.co.uk

See article from openrightsgroup.org

Sent to: Neil Berkett, Virgin Media Jeremy Darroch, Sky Dido Harding, TalkTalk Warren Buckley, BT Jeremy Woodrow, Royal Mail Ronan Dunne, O2 Richard Tang, Zen Internet One year ago, it became public knowledge that the Government intends to introduce legislation relating to communications data. We did not learn of this in Parliament, but in media leaks. It has become clear that a critical component of the Communications Data Bill is that UK communication service providers will be required by law to create data they currently do not have any business purpose for, and store it for a period of 12 months. Plainly, this crosses a line no democratic country has yet crossed — paying private companies to record what their customers are doing solely for the purposes of the state. These proposals are not fit for purpose, which possibly explains why the Home Office is so keen to ensure they are not aired publicly. There has been no public consultation, while on none of your websites is there any reference to these discussions. Meetings have been held behind closed doors as policy has been developed in secret, seemingly the same policy formulated several years ago despite widespread warnings from technical experts. That your businesses appear willing to be co-opted as an arm of the state to monitor every single one of your customers is a dangerous step, exacerbated by your silence Consumers are increasingly concerned about their privacy, both in terms of how much data is collected about them and how securely that data is kept. Many businesses have made a virtue of respecting consumer privacy and ensuring safe and secure internet access. Sadly, your customers have not had the opportunity to comment on these proposals. Indeed, were it not for civil society groups and the media, they would have no idea such a policy was being considered. We believe this is a critical failure not only of Government, but a betrayal of your customers’ interests. You appear to be engaged in a conspiracy of silence with the Home Office, the only concern being whether or not you will be able to recover your costs. We urge you to withdraw your participation in a process that in our view is deeply flawed, pursuing a pre-determined solution that puts competition, security and privacy at risk in an unprecedented way. With best wishes, Jim Killock, Executive Director, Open Rights Group Nick Pickles, Director, Big Brother Watch Sam Smith, Technologist, Privacy International

Home Office in Contempt…The Home Office is refusing to reveal the basic details about exactly how invasive the snooper’s charter is

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See article from telegraph.co.uk

Theresa May, the Home Secretary, has so far declined to explain a proposed snooping system that would allow officials to trawl through the public’s private emails, text messages and other messages sent through the internet. The Information Commissioner has now ordered the Home Office to publish advice ministers received on the design, cost and risks of the new snooping system by May 11. If the Home Office does not comply with the Information Notice issued by the Commissioner last week it will be judged as being in contempt of court . Dominic Raab, a Tory MP with an interest in human rights, requested the advice in a Freedom of Information request last summer, but May’s department has refused to publish the guidance citing supposed national security concerns. Raab said: This far-reaching scheme could drain the swamp of every email, text message and phone call made by every citizen, a tectonic shift in the relationship between the citizen and the state. So, it’s astonishing that Home Office bureaucrats are risking contempt of court by trying to cover up the most basic information on how the scheme will operate in practice.

Too Nasty by Half…Parliamentary committee sees through the government’s bollox and reports on how nasty the Snooper’s Charter really is

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See article from independent.co.uk

Ministers signalled they will rewrite the Snooper’s Charter which gives police, security services and anyone else the government nominates new powers to snoop on communications. An influential parliamentary committee branded it overkill and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said it needed a fundamental rethink . Home Secretary Theresa May accepted the substance of a highly-critical report by the committee set up to scrutinise the draft version of the Bill, which would allow a range of official bodies to monitor emails, web phone calls and activity on social networking sites. The committee of MPs and peers said the legislation would give the Home Secretary sweeping powers to issue secret notices ordering communications companies to disclose potentially limitless categories of data . And they accused the Government of using fanciful and misleading figures to support its case for the legislation. Clegg said he was ready to block the Bill in its current form, and called on the Home Office to go back to the drawing board : I believe the coalition Government needs to have a fundamental rethink about this legislation. We cannot proceed with this Bill and we have to go back to the drawing board. We need to reflect properly on the criticisms that the committee have made, while also consulting much more widely with business and other interested groups.

Mass lobby of Parliament…Tell your MP that the draft Communications Data Bill is not fit for purpose

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From bigbrotherwatch.org.uk

11th December 2012 The Joint Committee on the draft Communications Data Bill is due to report in a few weeks, after which the Government will consider what it should do in light of the widespread criticism the bill has received. Many MPs have written to constituents telling them that they will be making up their mind on whether to support the proposals to record every email we send, website we visit and all our social media messages only after the Joint Committee has published it’s report. We cannot afford to leave MPs in any doubt about this Bill – and for that we need your help. We are calling on all our supporters to request meetings with their MPs on the 11th December 2012. In conjunction with other campaign groups, we intend to make sure that every MP is in no doubt that the draft Communications Data Bill is not fit for purpose. We hope to have hundreds of supporters in Parliament meeting their MPs and highlighting the findings of the Joint Committee’s report. If you’re unable to meet your MP on the 11th, you can ask for Big Brother Watch to meet the MP on your behalf. The most important thing is to contact your MP now asking for a meeting.

A Legacy of Suspicion…Big Brother Watch publishes report on a decade of council snooping

Read more Liberty News at MelonFarmers.co.uk

See article from bigbrotherwatch.org.uk See Report: A Legacy of Suspicion [pdf] from bigbrotherwatch.org.uk

The latest Big Brother Watch report, A legacy of surveillance , looks at how the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act has been used by both local and public authorities in recent years. A decade on and more than three million authorisations later, Big Brother Watch research found how there is still a great deal of uncertainty about how and why the powers are being used — and a clear need for the Coalition to go further to protect civil liberties. While the Coalition has changed the law to require local authorities to seek a magistrates warrant for RIPA surveillance and only to use it for serious crimes, this is not the end of the matter. The issue is of course that councils and public authorities don’t have to say what they are up to, why, how often and even whether they have convicted anyone as a result. It takes groups like Big Brother Watch to dig up the figures — the next step is for the Government to take action and make this data publicly reported. Secondly, the Coalition has started down the right path in limiting how councils can use these powers. Now it’s time for a full and frank review of how RIPA functions — before the landscape is complicated even further with any more surveillance legislation that fiddles with the law in an effort to patch up existing failings. Finally, judicial authorisation of surveillance should be the norm, not the exception.

Snooper’s Charter…Government publishes draft bill allowing snooping on all internet and mobile communications

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See  article from  privacyinternational.org See  article from  publicaffairs.linx.net See Communications Capabilities briefing and summary of key issues [pdf] from bigbrotherwatch.org.uk

The government has published a draft version of a bill that, if signed into law in its current form, would force Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and mobile phone network providers in Britain to installblack boxes in order to collect and store information on everyone’s internet and phone activity, and give the police the ability to self-authorise access to this information. However, the Home Office failed to explain whether or not companies like Facebook, Google and Twitter will be brought under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA), and how they intend to deal with HTTPS encryption. Faith in the integrity of HTTPS encryption is what makes online banking and the entire e-commerce industry possible, and Google uses it to secure its Gmail service, as do most webmail providers. The need for easy access to Gmail has been one of the Home Office’s primary justifications for the Communications Bill, but technology experts are dubious as to whether it is possible to technically and lawfully break HTTPS on a nationwide scale. At this morning’s Home Office briefing, Director of the Office for Security and Counter-Terrorism Charles Farr was asked about how the black box technology would handle HTTPS encryption. His only response was:It will. The draft Bill includes controversial measures to require network operators to acquire communications data relating to third party services — for example, requiring an ISP to discover and record when its customers post a message on a social networking site, and to which other user of the site that message was addressed. The Bill does not specify what data ISPs are to acquire, nor provide any limits; the requirements for ISPs are to be set out in Orders made by the Home Secretary at a later date. Writing in The Sun, Home Secretary Theresa May said: I just don’t understand why some people criticise these proposals. People have a right to privacy. But unless you are a criminal, then you’ve nothing to worry about from this new law. This isn’t a snoopers’ charter, it’s a criminals’ nightmare. At a press and MP briefing at Parliament today, Julian Huppert MP said that he couldn’t believe the bill could even be put before the House in its current form. David Davis MP remarked that, given that the RIPA process is already a disgrace , the Home Office should be introducing a bill that introduces warrant requirements to RIPA rather than making it even easier for the police to access citizens’ communications data. He also revealed that David Maclean, the most right-wing politician the Home Office ever saw , will be chairing the committee on the bill. Dr Gus Hosein, Executive Director of Privacy International, said: In the UK, we’ve historically operated under the presumption that the government has no business peering into the lives of citizens unless there is good reason to – that people are innocent until proven guilty. This legislation would reverse that presumption and fundamentally change the relationship between citizen and state, and their relationship with their internet and mobile service providers. Yet there are still big question marks over whether Facebook and Google will be brought under RIPA, and how far the government is willing to go in undermining internet security in order to fulfil its insatiable desire for data.

Stop Government Snooping…38 Degrees organise petition against government internet snooping

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See petition from secure.38degrees.org.uk

Dear David Cameron, Respect our privacy. Stop the internet and phone snooping plan. Don’t spy on our e-mail, phone and internet use Keep your election promise to reverse the rise of the surveillance state This is Britain, not China or Iran. We don’t want the government spying on our every move. …Sign the petition . 175000 signatures so far.

UK Government 2010-1984…The Queen’s Speech heralds a snooping law that the KGB would be proud of

Read more UK Government Watch at MelonFarmers.co.uk

You know that when the government blathers on about safeguards and scrutiny, they only mention this because there won’t be any. See article from bigbrotherwatch.org.uk See also ‘Snooper’s charter’ removed from crime bill in last-minute coalition talks from guardian.co.uk

My Government intends to bring forward measures to maintain the ability of the law enforcement and intelligence agencies to access vital communications data under strict safeguards to protect the public, subject to scrutiny of draft clauses.So there we have it — the Communication Capabilities Development Programme will have it’s day in Parliament. We don’t know what the draft clauses will be or when we will see them, but the Government remains intent on pursuing legislation in the coming session of Parliament. The Home Office have been very good at saying what the problem is, but seem intent on keeping the technical details of what they are proposing secret. Is it any wonder that the public are scared by a proposal for online surveillance not seen in any other Western democracy. Update: Promises Promises From openrightsgroup.org The Snoopers’ Charter: the Communications Data Bill is about to be published by the government. When the coalition was elected, they promised that: We will end the storage of internet and email records without good reason (1) Nick Clegg added: We won’t hold your internet and email records when there is just no reason to do so. (2) Now, the government is saying that companies like Facebook and Google must keep your email and messaging records for 12 months, whether or not you are under suspicion: and that the records (not the content) must be handed over on the say-so of a police officer. The government are asking for powers to intercept and collect information about who you talk to online by snooping on your Internet traffic, in case companies based outside the UK don’t agree to hand over your information. That makes us all a suspect. Instead of being under surveillance when there is evidence of wrongdoing, you will be under suspicion by default.