[iwar] [fc:Snoops.a.go-go:.UK.gov.goes.mad.on.privacy.invasion]

From: Fred Cohen (fc@all.net)
Date: 2002-06-11 11:40:06


Return-Path: <sentto-279987-4804-1023820806-fc=all.net@returns.groups.yahoo.com>
Delivered-To: fc@all.net
Received: from 204.181.12.215 [204.181.12.215] by localhost with POP3 (fetchmail-5.7.4) for fc@localhost (single-drop); Tue, 11 Jun 2002 11:41:11 -0700 (PDT)
Received: (qmail 7296 invoked by uid 510); 11 Jun 2002 18:40:21 -0000
Received: from n38.grp.scd.yahoo.com (66.218.66.106) by all.net with SMTP; 11 Jun 2002 18:40:21 -0000
X-eGroups-Return: sentto-279987-4804-1023820806-fc=all.net@returns.groups.yahoo.com
Received: from [66.218.67.199] by n38.grp.scd.yahoo.com with NNFMP; 11 Jun 2002 18:40:06 -0000
X-Sender: fc@red.all.net
X-Apparently-To: iwar@onelist.com
Received: (EGP: mail-8_0_3_2); 11 Jun 2002 18:40:05 -0000
Received: (qmail 39840 invoked from network); 11 Jun 2002 18:40:05 -0000
Received: from unknown (66.218.66.217) by m6.grp.scd.yahoo.com with QMQP; 11 Jun 2002 18:40:05 -0000
Received: from unknown (HELO red.all.net) (12.232.72.152) by mta2.grp.scd.yahoo.com with SMTP; 11 Jun 2002 18:40:05 -0000
Received: (from fc@localhost) by red.all.net (8.11.2/8.11.2) id g5BIe6K18690 for iwar@onelist.com; Tue, 11 Jun 2002 11:40:06 -0700
Message-Id: <200206111840.g5BIe6K18690@red.all.net>
To: iwar@onelist.com (Information Warfare Mailing List)
Organization: I'm not allowed to say
X-Mailer: don't even ask
X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.5 PL3]
From: Fred Cohen <fc@all.net>
X-Yahoo-Profile: fcallnet
Mailing-List: list iwar@yahoogroups.com; contact iwar-owner@yahoogroups.com
Delivered-To: mailing list iwar@yahoogroups.com
Precedence: bulk
List-Unsubscribe: <mailto:iwar-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com>
Date: Tue, 11 Jun 2002 11:40:06 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: [iwar] [fc:Snoops.a.go-go:.UK.gov.goes.mad.on.privacy.invasion]
Reply-To: iwar@yahoogroups.com
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
X-Spam-Status: No, hits=0.0 required=5.0 tests=DIFFERENT_REPLY_TO version=2.20
X-Spam-Level: 

Snoops a go-go: UK gov goes mad on privacy invasion
By John Lettice
Posted: 11/06/2002 at 11:39 GMT

The UK government intends to implement sweeping extensions to the
snooping powers of official bodies before its controversial Regulation
of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) even comes into force.  RIPA was
bludgeoned through Parliament two years ago in the face of heavy
opposition, and is to come into force later this year. 

The government, however, plans to widen the list of authorities which
can demand access to phone, Internet and email records to the extent
that it will be quite difficult to identify the bodies that don't have
the authority to obtain data on you without the aid of a court order. 
RIPA itself was viewed as massively intrusive, but at least focussed on
giving investigatory powers to security bodies, customs and the Inland
Revenue, whereas the new list adds a wide range of bodies whose need for
this kind of information can at best be described as tenuous, and whose
capabilities of exercising such powers without abusing them are in many
cases debatable. 

Take the Department of Enterprise, for example.  If one concentrates
very hard, one can perhaps imagine situations where records would be
helpful in identifying fraudulent claimants, but it's hardly an issue of
national security.  Or there's every local authority in the UK, all of
whom can now presumably get busy tracking down people who're not paying
their local taxes.  The fire authorities? It's a tough one, but there's
surely some reason they're on the new list. 

Essentially, the extensions (which take the form of a draft order to be
debated next week) switch RIPA from covering largely security issues to
a set of powers that can be used by absolutely any national or local
government body to trawl for information that might be helpful in
investigating almost anything they care to. 

So far, the primary defence against RIPA has been the difficulty in
implementing it.  It allows phone companies, ISPs and postal operators
to be served with notices demanding information such as names and
addresses of users, phone numbers called, source and destination of
emails, the identity of web sites visited or mobile phone location data. 
The government has not however been terribly effective in putting this
into practice, and is now shooting for August.  As it hasn't yet
specified the level of official in the various bodies added who will
have the power to require this information, the latest escalation in
repression and privacy invasion could conceivably delay the whole
shooting match. 

Ian Brown, director of the Foundation for Information Policy Research
denounced the plan to hand over power without judicial oversight to a
"practically endless queue of bureaucrats. 

"The difficulty that the Government has encountered in getting the right
processes in place for the police should make us ultra-cautious in
extending these powers to such a wide range of bodies.  We don't think
that there's been enough resources put into the oversight arrangements
for the current proposals, let alone what will be needed for this huge
extension.  In practice, these bodies are going to obtain this personal
data on anyone they wish, without any effective way of checking what
they're doing". 

------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~-->
Will You Find True Love?
Will You Meet the One?
Free Love Reading by phone!
http://us.click.yahoo.com/Deo18C/zDLEAA/Ey.GAA/kgFolB/TM
---------------------------------------------------------------------~->

------------------
http://all.net/ 

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ 



This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : 2003-08-24 02:46:32 PDT