Slashdot Mirror
UK Government Expands Spying Powers
An anonymous submitter provides the best write-up of this story: "Today's front page story of The Guardian covers an attempt by the UK government to expand the number of organisations entitled to demand communications data under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA). Previously only Customs and Excise, the Inland Revenue, various law enforcement bodies and intelligence agencies were able to demand this information. The list of agencies proposed in the new Draft Statutory Instrument authorises practically everyone from local councils to the Food Standards Agency to demand traffic data. Traffic data includes almost all information attached to a communication apart from the contents of the communication itself. The location of your mobile phone, for example. Who you called on it and who's called you. The URLs you've visited or IP addresses of people who've visited your server... and the list goes on. The two o'clock update has a quote from the PM's spokesman reassuring us how safe we're all going to be once the Department of Work and Pensions can check our phone records. There's also an editorial piece to emphasise that this is a Bad Thing."
This draft is already at quite a late stage: best bet is to fax or mail your MP directly. For the lazy there's a form letter here - and FaxYourMP.com is your friend.
Wake up, you brits: the police state envisioned by Orwell is becoming real. If you look at the loss of liberty in the last fifteen years, and extrapolate forward fifteen more, we'll be RFID tagging the populace.
This is a particularly sinister development. Tony Blair's government attempts to discredit critics (in this case, the survivor of a train disaster who criticised his governments handling of rail safety) using background checks and database searches. These new powers will give the civil service the ability to persecute anyone who has a grievance against the government, even if only by ad hominem attacks, ad nauseum.
I've posted this already to kuro5hin, but it can't hurt to repeat my comments to a possibly wider audience. A few sample letters are also here.
If you're like me, you'll find writing to your MP about matters like this very rewarding. Saying that, I neglected to write or fax when the RIP bill first came up, despite my intentions to do so.
I last wrote (dead tree, rather than fax) to my MP at the time regarding Higher Education funding (at the request of my old University), and got a nice reply back saying he'd deal with it in due course. Subsequently, I received a pp'd letter saying he'd contacted the appropriate people.
Ok, it changed nothing - higher education is still poorly funded - but I felt I'd done 'my bit'. Multiply that out, and it could have an effect. Although with the almost dictatorial goverment system we have, it's hard to imagine enough Labour MP's rebelling against a 3-line whip to reject the amendment.
It makes a lot more sense to write something you have thought about, rather than copy/pasting somebody else's letter. If the same MP (well, secretary) receives a few similair messages through the same format (ie. fax), they IMNSHO are (even though they shouldn't) more likely to discount your views.
Different letters, especially if they are dead-tree compliant (come on, how many tech savy MP's have you ever seen or heard from?) go so much further.
So do it, people. This extension of power is extreme, and deserves a letter writing campaign and far more attention.
So:
# Write to your MP. It'll only take a few minutes to write it, print it, sign it, and send it.
# Write again after a few weeks if you've not heard back.
# Forward the link to this story (when it hits the front page or sections) to your friends.
# Mention it to friends at the pub. It's ridiculous, and i'd be startled if anybody - even the non-techies in your circle of friends - agree it makes sense for these organisations to have this amount of power.
# Check that newspapers are giving this coverage.
# Write letters to newspapers on the subject, expressing your feelings.
None of this takes a huge amount of time. It's worth it, and you'll feel a lot better for doing it.
And if anything, it might start to pursuade the government and media that techy's can actual get themselves organised into a politicial pressure
group.
Maybe. Perhaps.
Mmmmm.
Well, one step at a time, then, eh?
ooooooh! What does this button do? - DeeDee, Dexters Lab.
This is not offtopic, it's a historical perspective on this subject, from the U.S. viewpoint. Many Slashdot readers are too young to remember Nixon, so here's a reminder of why so many Americans worry about giving government police and spy agencies too much unregulated power.
After Nixon's resignation, the Church Committee, named after its chairman, Senator Frank Church of Idaho, conducted a wide-ranging investigation of US intelligence agencies. In its final report, issued in April 1976, the committee concluded: "Domestic intelligence activity has threatened and undermined the Constitutional rights of Americans to free speech, association and privacy. It has done so primarily because the Constitutional system for checking abuse of power has not been applied."
The committee said the abuses by the intelligence apparatus mirrored the growth of excessive executive power and excessive secrecy, and that in the name of "national security" intelligence officers and their senior officials blatantly disregarded the law and the civil liberties of their targets. (Sound familiar, anyone?)
The Church Committee revealed the enormous scope of the operations against anti-war demonstrators, civil rights activists and left-wing political parties. This included the FBI's Counterintelligence Program (Cointelpro), which had the stated goal "to expose, disrupt, misdirect, discredit, or otherwise neutralize" left-wing opponents of government policy. FBI headquarters alone developed over 500,000 domestic intelligence files on US citizens.
In addition the committee found:
* At least 26,000 individuals were at one point catalogued on an FBI list of persons to be rounded up in the event of a "national emergency."
* Nearly a quarter of a million first class letters were opened and photographed in the US by the CIA between 1953 and 1973, producing a CIA computerized index of nearly 1.5 million names.
* Separate files were created on approximately 7,200 Americans and over 100 domestic groups in the course of the CIA's Operation CHAOS (1967-1973), aimed at crushing the student anti-war movement.
* Millions of private telegrams sent from, to, or through the US were obtained by the National Security Agency from 1947 to 1975 under a secret arrangement with three US telegraph companies. (Replaced now by Eschalon)
* An estimated 100,000 Americans were the subjects of United States Army intelligence files created between the mid-1960s and 1971.
* Intelligence files on more than 11,000 individuals and groups were created by the Internal Revenue Service between 1969 and 1973 and tax investigations were started on the basis of political rather than tax criteria.
The Senate committee also found that these agencies sent anonymous letters attacking the political beliefs of targets in order to induce their employers to fire them. Similar letters were sent to spouses in an effort to destroy marriages. The committee also documented criminal break-ins, the theft of membership lists and misinformation campaigns aimed at provoking violent attacks against targeted individuals.
One of the most infamous operations uncovered by the Church Committee was the FBI's campaign to "neutralize" civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. This included an extensive surveillance program to obtain information about the "private activities of King and his advisers" to use in order to "completely discredit" them. The FBI mailed King a tape recording made from microphones hidden in hotel rooms. As one agent testified, this was an attempt to destroy King's marriage. The tape was accompanied by a note suggesting that the recording would be released to the public unless King committed suicide.
The FBI's Cointelpro operations against the Black Panthers involved the killing of several leaders, including Fred Hampton, by the Chicago police, as well as the frame-up and imprisonment of scores of others.
It's very important that everyone in the UK who is concerned about this actually do something about it by writing to their MP. When the RIP was going through I'd an exchange of letters with my MP where I registered my concern. In fairness, my comments probably had little effect but I was informed of amemdments and at least there's one more piece of paper expressing concern in the files.
It's important to note that only comments in writing will be noticed. That's the way the system works. Also, by writing to your MP you're going to get attention - it's part of their office to reply - even sending out form letters creates notice. The easy way for us to make comments is by faxing your MP.
Go and do it now.
In my ranting to various friends on various mailing lists, one chap (Martin R) suggested the following:
You could also try calling the labour party on 08705 900200 (UK Number, so +44 8705 900200 from outside the UK)
choose option 3 to be put through to a Goverment Information Adviser. A report of the calls they receive is sent out to Number 10.
They will tell you it is for law enforcement purposes (so why aren't the police doing it), but don't know very much about it. Quoting directly from the order will fox them thoroughly.
They have already received a number of calls.
There is also an option to contact Labour Party Head Office, although they don't seem to be answering right now.
ooooooh! What does this button do? - DeeDee, Dexters Lab.