Hello to everyone. This topic pertains primarily to those who reside in the United Kingdom, though certainly isn’t limited to just folks who do. I just wanted a platform to discuss and express myself regarding this piece of legislation as it is something I feel is one of the most important issues at the moment and would like to see what others opinions are on this.
I have previously corresponded with our new dearly democratically elected leader Theresa May when she was home secretary and intend to do so once more now she is PM in the format of an open letter. Unfortunately this will likely never reach her and even if it does her response will likely be a simplistic copy paste job quoting the letter of the law that implies the points I have raised are obsolete (same as the last response I got). Regardless I feel I must do this, as if we don’t tell our leaders that they’ve crossed the line then we risk losing the façade of democracy that so many gave so much to achieve (regardless of my own feelings on the current model of our ‘democracy’).
Anyway.
What is the Snoopers Charter and why should I give it any thought?
Well, our delightful government have just passed legislation that gives them an unprecedented amount of power when it comes to spying on us, its citizens. (Yup, even more power than the NSA had in the good ol’USA – in fact we now have the most oppressive internet laws out of… every single democratic county in the entire world). How did we get here? Why in the world did our government feel the need to acquire more power than that of any other democratic nation? Should we care? What can we do if anything?
So, what is it?
The Snoopers Charter is the nickname for the ‘Investigatory Powers Act 2016’ – it was first introduced by Theresa May when she was Home Secretary. The bill calls for the bulk collection of all of our personal data and gives the police and security services the power to intercept our electronic communication – ie who we talk to, where we are and what we are looking at online. This law applies to every single citizen, not just those who are suspected of a crime. So whoever you are, our government will be able to access our internet and calling history from the last year – creating a system of mass surveillance in the UK.
What? I thought the world fixed this with Snowden and GCHQ?
Well, while Edward did shake the world and reveal the extent of the global surveillance program that was run by the NSA in close cooperation with their British counterpart, GCHQ. In the good ol’USA this lead to wide criticism and outrage from the population and a curtailment of state spying powers, we in England instead made it legal for the security services to continue doing what they already doing behind our backs.
So why should I be furious about this?
Our government is lying to us. Theresa May and her colleagues claim that this bill is necessary to protect us from terrorism. But did you know there is no evidence at all that mass survailence has ever thwarted a terrorist attack. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/18/opinion/mass-surveillance-isnt-the-answer-to-fighting-terrorism.html?_r=0
Power is being abused. Do you trust our security services enough to not abuse their power? If so you may be a bit too naïve. There is already a similar act in place (the Regulation of Investigatory Powers act) in relation to local councils as the evidence there isn’t good. They’ve abused it to spy on dog walkers, mounted an operation to check on the ‘proper movement of pigs’ whatever that means, investigate a ‘fraudulent escort agency’ and spied on a ‘tarmac resurfacing service’ – and that’s just what a few councils have done. Can you imagine the level of abuse this will open us all up to should anyone with a personal vendetta get access to any of this information.
It makes us more vulnerable to cyber crime. The law allows our government to request companies like Apple and WhatApp to remove encryption when they request it. Remember the recent dispute between the FBI and Apple? This was all about protecting people as once an encryption method has been ‘weakened’ for the governments to access, it means it’ll inevitably become weaker to cyber-attacks and hackers, meaning we as a country will be far more vulnerable to cybercrime and identity theft than our international counterparts.
It affects the freedoms of our journalists. Under the new law journalists will no longer be able to promise whistle-blowers and other vulnerable sources that their sensitive information will not be compromised. Why? Because the government will be spying on all of their communications/ How can they work with sensitive information or make controversial state secrets public if they don’t even have freedom from surveillance?
Most importantly, other countries don’t have to put up with this! Edward Snowden has called the Snoopers Charter ‘the most intrusive and least accountable surveillance regime in the west’ and he is right. No other democratic nation spies on its citizens this way. Isn’t it good that we are now joining the ranks of Russia and China as countries that choose to abuse the privacy rights of its citizens for no proven national security gain?
What can I do to stop this, you may ask.
Unfortunately the bill has already passed in both houses of Parliament so this system of mass surveillance will soon become a reality for us. Luckily there are a few ways to keep yourself safe and keep your data away from prying government eyes. Use a VPN (Virtual proxy network) , the law mentions nothing about using these to protect your information. Preferably one based outside of the UK, for example Germany where they still have strict privacy laws that ban the storage of personal data like this. I won’t suggest any, but if I were you it is time to educate yourself on how to stay protected online. That is unless you of course don’t mind each and everything you’ve ever looked at on the internet or your phone, each conversation and with whom, being saved and browsed through by our government at their will without any just reason or cause.
Benjamin Franklin once said (maybe):
Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.
Seems like we are going down a bad route.
Now on top of all of this there was recently a stealthy attempt to censor a huge amount of pornography in the UK by amending the 2003 communication act, which went through. Now my point here isn’t about pornography, but just in case anyone cares about that, here is a list of what acts are now banned in our little pleasure videos in the UK:
The point here though, is this will allow our government to put in place a system to block things on the internet (think of the children you monster!). Initially this will be the previously mentioned acts, but once the infrastructure is in place it can easily be used to censor anything else they don’t want us to see.
I don’t like at all where things are going. First the EU is left (won’t get into that whole kettle of fish), which guaranteed us as citizens protection under the EU human’s rights act. Now of course we don’t have this (or won’t at some point in the near future) and we will be open to whatever bill our lovely government wants to press us into… based on our new oppressive surveillance laws I wouldn’t say the future looks very free at all.
I have previously corresponded with our new dearly democratically elected leader Theresa May when she was home secretary and intend to do so once more now she is PM in the format of an open letter. Unfortunately this will likely never reach her and even if it does her response will likely be a simplistic copy paste job quoting the letter of the law that implies the points I have raised are obsolete (same as the last response I got). Regardless I feel I must do this, as if we don’t tell our leaders that they’ve crossed the line then we risk losing the façade of democracy that so many gave so much to achieve (regardless of my own feelings on the current model of our ‘democracy’).
Anyway.
What is the Snoopers Charter and why should I give it any thought?
Well, our delightful government have just passed legislation that gives them an unprecedented amount of power when it comes to spying on us, its citizens. (Yup, even more power than the NSA had in the good ol’USA – in fact we now have the most oppressive internet laws out of… every single democratic county in the entire world). How did we get here? Why in the world did our government feel the need to acquire more power than that of any other democratic nation? Should we care? What can we do if anything?
So, what is it?
The Snoopers Charter is the nickname for the ‘Investigatory Powers Act 2016’ – it was first introduced by Theresa May when she was Home Secretary. The bill calls for the bulk collection of all of our personal data and gives the police and security services the power to intercept our electronic communication – ie who we talk to, where we are and what we are looking at online. This law applies to every single citizen, not just those who are suspected of a crime. So whoever you are, our government will be able to access our internet and calling history from the last year – creating a system of mass surveillance in the UK.
What? I thought the world fixed this with Snowden and GCHQ?
Well, while Edward did shake the world and reveal the extent of the global surveillance program that was run by the NSA in close cooperation with their British counterpart, GCHQ. In the good ol’USA this lead to wide criticism and outrage from the population and a curtailment of state spying powers, we in England instead made it legal for the security services to continue doing what they already doing behind our backs.
So why should I be furious about this?
Our government is lying to us. Theresa May and her colleagues claim that this bill is necessary to protect us from terrorism. But did you know there is no evidence at all that mass survailence has ever thwarted a terrorist attack. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/18/opinion/mass-surveillance-isnt-the-answer-to-fighting-terrorism.html?_r=0
Power is being abused. Do you trust our security services enough to not abuse their power? If so you may be a bit too naïve. There is already a similar act in place (the Regulation of Investigatory Powers act) in relation to local councils as the evidence there isn’t good. They’ve abused it to spy on dog walkers, mounted an operation to check on the ‘proper movement of pigs’ whatever that means, investigate a ‘fraudulent escort agency’ and spied on a ‘tarmac resurfacing service’ – and that’s just what a few councils have done. Can you imagine the level of abuse this will open us all up to should anyone with a personal vendetta get access to any of this information.
It makes us more vulnerable to cyber crime. The law allows our government to request companies like Apple and WhatApp to remove encryption when they request it. Remember the recent dispute between the FBI and Apple? This was all about protecting people as once an encryption method has been ‘weakened’ for the governments to access, it means it’ll inevitably become weaker to cyber-attacks and hackers, meaning we as a country will be far more vulnerable to cybercrime and identity theft than our international counterparts.
It affects the freedoms of our journalists. Under the new law journalists will no longer be able to promise whistle-blowers and other vulnerable sources that their sensitive information will not be compromised. Why? Because the government will be spying on all of their communications/ How can they work with sensitive information or make controversial state secrets public if they don’t even have freedom from surveillance?
Most importantly, other countries don’t have to put up with this! Edward Snowden has called the Snoopers Charter ‘the most intrusive and least accountable surveillance regime in the west’ and he is right. No other democratic nation spies on its citizens this way. Isn’t it good that we are now joining the ranks of Russia and China as countries that choose to abuse the privacy rights of its citizens for no proven national security gain?
What can I do to stop this, you may ask.
Unfortunately the bill has already passed in both houses of Parliament so this system of mass surveillance will soon become a reality for us. Luckily there are a few ways to keep yourself safe and keep your data away from prying government eyes. Use a VPN (Virtual proxy network) , the law mentions nothing about using these to protect your information. Preferably one based outside of the UK, for example Germany where they still have strict privacy laws that ban the storage of personal data like this. I won’t suggest any, but if I were you it is time to educate yourself on how to stay protected online. That is unless you of course don’t mind each and everything you’ve ever looked at on the internet or your phone, each conversation and with whom, being saved and browsed through by our government at their will without any just reason or cause.
Benjamin Franklin once said (maybe):
Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.
Seems like we are going down a bad route.
Now on top of all of this there was recently a stealthy attempt to censor a huge amount of pornography in the UK by amending the 2003 communication act, which went through. Now my point here isn’t about pornography, but just in case anyone cares about that, here is a list of what acts are now banned in our little pleasure videos in the UK:
The point here though, is this will allow our government to put in place a system to block things on the internet (think of the children you monster!). Initially this will be the previously mentioned acts, but once the infrastructure is in place it can easily be used to censor anything else they don’t want us to see.
I don’t like at all where things are going. First the EU is left (won’t get into that whole kettle of fish), which guaranteed us as citizens protection under the EU human’s rights act. Now of course we don’t have this (or won’t at some point in the near future) and we will be open to whatever bill our lovely government wants to press us into… based on our new oppressive surveillance laws I wouldn’t say the future looks very free at all.
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