Slashdot Mirror
Debate Postponed On UK RIP Act Amendment
Harry Morgan writes: "
The UK Government has postponed debate on,
The Regulation of Investigatory Powers (Communications Data: Additional Public Authorities) Order 2002
which is their attempt to expand the number of organisations entitled to demand communications data under
the original RIP act, until Tuesday 18th June. For anyone who feels strongly about this, now is the time to
do something about it. You can fax your Member of Parliament from stand.org.uk a
site which gives comprehensive information about the order and the original act.
"
Also http://www.faxyourmp.com/, which does what it says on the box.
In Social Democratic Sweden
"Instead of next Tuesday (18th June), the Commons debate will now take place on the following Monday (24th June)"
Investigative organisations like the NHS and GPO cannot function unless there is a supply of valid useable data. People hiding this sort of data will prevent them from operating.
We need a law like this to prevent terrorists from being able to hide from these groups.
Please, every UK resident who values their privacy use the form to fax your MP, or better yet write a letter (I know; archaic, but it might just get the attention of a technophobe MP or two in a way that a fax wouldn't).
Finally, a wake up call to the many Europeons that visit slashdot. I've seen lots of you from across the Atlantic poke fun of and jest at some of the rediculous measures being passed in the US, but unfortunatly, as we do, other countries tend to follow. So, PLEASE, PLEASE, if you're from the UK, don't just sit on your ass as many Americans have done. Write your representives! Express your concerns. Let them know how you feel about your privacy rights. Does anyone know of any way people outside the UK can help out? Im sick of these kind of policies happening in the world as of late. There has got to be a way where we can stand up not just as citizens against our own countries policies, but as an international community againt all injustices to civil rights.
"To lead the people, you must walk behind them"
This Act has me deathly afraid.
...couldn't resist
Nevermind the fact that more government departments are going to be added to the list (The Post Office and Food Standards Agency among them) how about the fact that it is going to massively increase the power of the people in these departments, are they are going to be vetted before the deparment is added to the approve list ? (i suspect not)
Also consider the legacy of Stephen Byers former minister for transport who was caught out emailing about the political slant of activists caught up in the Paddington rail crash, with the increased range of departments able to get at our electronic history / demand PGP keys etc what kind of requests will the government be making next time about people that are speaking against them ?
Use faxyourmp.com and do something about it
A monkey in every office....
The story has been up for 45 minutes and has only 11 comments, what gives?
How dare those britishers! They still think that us Yankees are a colony of theirs.
Now tell me, ye fine young lad, just who is my Parlimentary Representative for California?
/^[A-Z0-9._%+-]+@[A-Z0-9.-]+\.[A-Z]{2,4}$/i
It took me a while to find a clear and concise link. Here it is.
Looks like a pretty ugly violation of privacy.
Here's a nasty theory: if the amendment, as drafted, is passed, it will make life virtually impossible for investigative journalists. If you want to dig into malfeasance or corruption in an NHS trust, local parish council, or just about any government department, under the revised RIPA terms even a low-level administrator can order your phone tapped, your email monitored, and generally track all your incoming information. Which undermines the ability of journalists to protect their sources.
In addition to phone and internet taps, the RIP Act covers private CCTV footage (there are over two million private CCTV cameras in the UK). This could potentially allow affected agencies to visually monitor journalists on their way to appointments with sources -- or to demand tape of meetings in order to identify sources. Basically, if this measure passes, anonymous whistle-blowing will become seriously difficult.
The last Conservative administration encountered a deluge of corruption scandals in their fourth election term; these were partly a result of genuine corruption, but also partially the consequence of the British press scenting blood in the water and homing in on every rumour. This measure sounds to me like New Labour, in conjunction with the Home Office, battening down the hatches and tightening the screws in order to reduce leaks.
HOWEVER.. for everyone else it's a snooper's charter. For example, just why does the local council need access to my traffic records? Do I have something to hide from them.. well YES as an active participant in local democracy I sometimes find myself at odds with people in power. Do I want them (for instance) to collect the email addresses of people I correspond with and build up a list of everybody who's a member of the same political party as I am? Nope - that information is highly confidential. Do I want them to probe the URLs I'm looking at when I'm maintaining political websites or sites that are critical of the administration? Nope - remember, sometimes the password is either encoded into the URL, or the raw URL itself can often bypass authentication.
That's just an example of legitimate political activity that will potentially come under scrutiny by corrupt people in local government.. and believe me, there are plenty of those about.
To an extent, I trust MI5 and other bodies because I'm not a terrorist or drug smuggler, but do I trust all those other bodies that will be able to snoop on me? Absolutely not.. this WILL be abused, but don't count on the perpatrators ever being brough to justice.
I might just change by name to Winston Smith and get it over with.
Never email donotemail@WeAreSpammers.com
Yes, you are indeed right. The thing is, the "guilty until proven innocent" method is a direct violation of the Human Rights Act, which is law in the UK, and is one of those "unmutable" laws. Thus, you could theoretically get the law struck down using the human rights argument.
There's lately been alot of these messages going around that various goverments are planning on decreasing their citizens freedom of speech. All over the world "democratic" goverments are grasping to images of terrorists in an desperate attempt to make us citizens comply with further restrictions on our lives.
Just recently the european intelligence service Europool has been cited to propose that all companies running web-services should store passwords and browsed urls for five years. All emails and information about the use of chatlines are also to be put under supervision for the timeline of 5 years.
Even if the above won't pass as stated, it will probably induce a more limited standard on ISPs and us users.
What I find dangerous about the above is the notion that we are all guilty until proven innocent (if ever). And what happens if a country suddenly gets overthrown by a dictatorship or if some joke-posting about you wanting to blow up your mothers car gets you thrown into jail?
A large part of the problem is also the various people who do not see the long-term ramifications of nations wanting to log its citizens. They do not believe that such acts will not concern them, citing "they are not doing anything illegal". But what will happen if the ruling upper class gets its way? Will the proletarian grunts be mindless workers without a will to do a new revolution when that time comes?
People believe that the world is a great place to live in. But the upper-class people of France also believed that their world was perfect, until the revolution came. Revolutions are healthy for a world because it empowers the people to choose its ruling class, and not the ruling class to choose its citizens.
For a more new-age look into things, just take a look back a couple of years and take a peek on the anti-communist era of the western world. How many people were innocently framed during those times? It can all happen again!
=-kiOwA-> EOF
Fax your letter to your MP to tell them you'll RIP your ballot if they don't RIP the act apart!
RIP RIP to shreds!
The reading of RIP is strange whichever way you argue it:
Either: You are presumed guilty of Some Crime and you must prove your innocence by revealing your secret (which contradicts english laws over a milennia old "innocent until proved guilty")
Or: Keeping a secret from government is itself a crime (which is what RIP actually says), which contradicts the European convention on human rights ("right to privacy for your correspondance")
Interestingly, the victims won't even be able to argue this "illegality of laws" in court, because RIP now makes it a crime to tell anyone that you're being investigated.
Dear Whoever
I am concerned about the extension to the RIP bill that is to be debated in Parliament shortly and as your constituent, ask of you to oppose it. It is an abusive and unnecessary extension to an already heavily intrusive act. This will allow multiple government departments that have nothing to do with law enforcement to access all manner of information on us without a Warrant. There is quite simply no need for such a high level of surveillance.
Whilst there is a need for the Police to be granted a limited amount of authority to combat practices like online Pedophillia in law, there is no need every government department from the department of transport to the Post office to legally obtain data about me without a warrant. A careful balance should be kept between the need to investigate crime and the civil rights of the individual that were once granted in the Data Protection act. This act gives unprecedented power to those not even involved with investigating crime without a thought for an individual's rights (A practice disturbingly commonplace in Blair's government) without increasing the efficiency of the police to combat crime in the slightest. The law already gives them ample powers.
Not to mention the potential for abuse that this act has. I'm sure you are already aware of the situation with Stephen Byers's Special Advisers, who tried to smear members of the Paddington Rail Crash Survivors Group. This act would have made it infinately easier for them to do so. Giving the Ministry of Transport the legal right to keep record of all of the phone calls they made, a list of all the websites they visited and read all of their e-mail. I hope you agree that this scandalous invasion of our privacy needs to be fought at all opportunities.
Yours Sincearly
As I understand it, this law is a result from a recently passed act in the EU parliament, which means every EU country must make local laws in line with it.
For all those people out there who voted for Blair at the last general election: THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT.
The level of barefaced curruption and sleeze demonstrated by this Labour government makes the antics of the previous Conservative government look like Angels.
The fact is, Blair is a control freek. He has control over the Labour party so that the are all nothing but Blair's Robots... He has control over the press so that they do not report all of what he is doing. He is now seeking control of every single person in the UK.
The parallels which can be drawn against Blair vs Hitler and Blair vs Saddam are astounding.... Compare many of Blair's election speeches to translations of Hitler's. Compare his delivery style to that of Hitler's. Compare his appointment styles with that of Saddam.
Blair is a very dangerous terror in this world.
It is not only the RIP bill to be worried about. There are several other bills which also make the assumption of "Guilty until proven innocent (if we feel bothered to try to find you innocent)".
Bah!
I can rant all day and night.
-- The universe began. Life started on a billion worlds...
-- Except on one where stupidity was there first.
Dear Rt Hon Michael Wier,
I am writing to protest against the "Regulation of Investigatory Powers (Communications Data: Additional Public Authorities) Order 2002" which is currently going through Parliament.
I am not alone in my belief that this is a gross invasion of privacy, and while most of us have nothing to hide, our personal business is no business of the state. The sheer principle of Big Brother spying on us all is unpleasant in itself, and it is fundamentally wrong for someone to monitor us.
I realise that the aim of this legislation is to catch out people like terrorists and "enemies of the state". But punishing everyone by restricting their freedom is not the way to do it.
Please, do not let Orwell's "1984" become true. Make a stand for the people - for freedom's sake.
You were expecting a sig?
RIP the RIP apart and let RIP RIP.
And when Slashdot runs stories asking its readers to contact their representatives and senators, do you hear the UK geeks complaining?
The Internet crosses borders in such a way that if one country passes a stupid law, it has the potential to mess around with the lives not just of citizens of that country, but of net users all over the world. (The obvious example is the former American ban on exports of cryptography software, which caused everyone, American and non-American, ridiculous amounts of extra work.) But only the citizens of the country passing the law get a say in whether it's clueful or not, even though it's in everyone's interests for the laws to be clueful everywhere. There's nothing particularly wrong with that-- it's just the way legislation works-- but it does mean that the global community depends to some extent on local action. If Congress were to propose some crazy law, you could write your representatives; I couldn't. If Parliament did the same, it would be the other way around.
GROGGS: alive and well and living in
Thats the Rt Hon Chris Smith, Labour MP for Islington South and Finsbury, then I can confirm that he *does* respond to emails. I emailed them re: RAE funding of UK medical schools and received both a reply (by letter and signed) and the covering letter he sent to the department he raised the issue with. I'm no fan of politics or politicians, but his prompt reply impressed me.
Ha Ha...
Growing up in the 80s and 90s where we were brainwashed into thinking right-wing equals evil, left-wing equals cool and trendy.
Now look - the left-wing obsession with control-freakery and the surveillance of it's citizens now becomes apparent.
I've decided to become a black, lesbian woman.
Right On!
Is anyone organising a protest over this ?
A few thousand people outside the commons on the day of the debate would no doubt generate some useful media interest.
The Sunday Times ran a long article on this subject only this morning.
Here are some ideas and examples of letters that you could use to base the letter/faxes to your MP. However please, please do not just copy and paste significant portions of the letter into your one. This does more harm than good since then the MPs will just ignore both of them and think that you don't care about the issue enought to write your own letter.
Steven Murdoch.
web: http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/users/sjm217/
Absolutly. Its an amazing peice of legislation, in that it somehoe manages to completly contridict both UK Common Law, and European Human Rights directives. Frankly, it is highly unlikely that the RIP Bill would stand up to scruteny in a European Court of Appeal, or Human Rights. However, this bill was introduced under cover-of-darkness, so many people (Even within the IT industry) are not aware that these laws exist. What we need to do, is to make people aware that User 956 is a kiddie fiddler of the highest order, and have people stand up and have this law overturned. Fax & write your MP, attend May Dat Protests, whatever it takes.
I'm pleased to see the debate being postponed because it will give my MP enough time to read my letter and understand it (I hope). This is what I sent:
Wednesday 12 June 2002
Dear Mr David Drew,
I am writing to you because I am very disturbed about the proposed 'Regulation of Investigatory Powers (Communications Data: Additional Public Authorities) Order 2002' which will grant additional Government departments, Local authorities, the NHS and other agencies access to my personal data, including the source and destination of emails sent to and from myself, logs of the websites that I visit, and details of my mobile phone usage (including times and dates of calls, and the locations where calls were made).
While I understand the need to protect national security and prevent crime, I am becoming increasingly unhappy about the infringements of civil liberties (including the right to privacy) that the government is taking under the guise of 'preventing terrorism'. These are issues that are rightly handled by the police and security services and not the organisations mentioned above.
Although Ministers are claiming that there will be safeguards put in place to protect the public from any abuse, I have yet to see anything convincing that explains why Government should have the right to invade my (and your) privacy in the first place, when the police already have those powers.
As a supporter of the Labour party in the last two General Elections, I have become increasingly concerned that the opinions of the electorate are being ignored, and that issues such as this that affect the public at large are being pushed though Parliment due to the massive majority that the government currently has.
I ask that as my elected representative, you will oppose these proposals.
Yours sincerely.
etc etc.
IF YOU ARE IN THE UK, YOU HAVE A RESPONSIBILITY TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS!!!!!!! (IMHO)
It means "wanker", or someone who masturbates excessively. Like most of the friendless Linux-using hippies that frequent this over-glorified student message board. Another AC.
This issue scares me so much. It has prompted me to write to my MP for the first time in years. Just the thought of agencies like the post office snooping my on line life scares me.
Take it to the limit..... u receive a letter from the post office saying "we see u regulary email these people [list follows] wouldnt it be so much more personal if you wrote them a letter?"
Crazy? they way things are going I wouldnt bet against it.
another Roadkill on the Information Superhighway
Do you have a link to that 'right to privacy for your correspondance' somewhere? Because the RIPA bill flagrantly violates it. Perhaps we can get it stuck down for that?
-- And when Justice is gone, there is always... Force. --Laurie Anderson, "Oh Superman"
Well atleast they've changed the name back to 'The Post Office' instead of 'Consignia'*sp
That, like many New Labour policies, makes no sense what so ever..
Something tells me Tony Blair got a toy spy kit for christmas and decided he'd like a 'slightly better model'.
Here is the letter which I sent to my MP on Thursday. Feel free to use it for ideas for your own letters/faxes/emails but please, please do not just copy and paste significant portions of the letter into your one. This does more harm than good since then the MPs will just ignore both of them and think that you don't care about the issue enought to write your own letter.
Mr Tony Worthington
MP for Clydebank & Milngavie
House of Commons
London
SW1A 0AA
Dear Mr Worthington,
I am writing to you to raise my concerns about the Regulation of Investigatory Powers (Communications Data: Additional Public Authorities) Order 2002 --- due to be debated in Parliament on Tuesday 18th June --- which permits additional agencies to obtain certain, otherwise confidential, information under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA).
As with many other people I was concerned by the introduction of the RIPA, due to the extreme powers it granted law enforcement agencies, in particular sections 21--25 which permits the Police, Customs & Excise and the intelligence services to obtain "Communications Data". Importantly, to exercise these powers a warrant is not required and their use is not subject to judicial oversight. While these powers may be understandable for the purposes of serious crime prevention, the amendment will greatly extend the number organisations which are be permitted the same power. Would the original RIPA act have been passed if the organisations proposed by the amendment were present in the bill?
"Communications Data," as defined in the order, is more conventionally called Traffic Data. This includes the address and other data which is used by the communications system to transmit the message to the recipient. For example such information would include the list of telephone numbers called, from both mobile and ordinary telephones, the list of websites visited and goods purchased over the Internet, and the addresses of any email sent. In aggregation this information alone provides great power in tracking the behaviour of a person. Worryingly the same law also permits the location of anyone carrying a mobile phone, regardless of whether it is in use or not, to be identified to the precision of a few meters. This is due to the fact that mobile phone networks must monitor the location of handsets to allow a telephone connection to be made.
Since no judicial oversight exists and other safeguards are almost non-existent, the opportunity for these powers to be abused is significant. Perhaps for this reason, the original act limited organisations to the Police, Customs & Excise and the intelligence services. However the order proposed will permit many more organisations to obtain this information. A list is included below, however it includes local authorities (including fire authorities), the NHS, the Food Standards Agency and even Consignia/The Royal Mail as it is a "Universal Service Provider". What legitimate reason have organisations like these to the information described above? Were a criminal act suspected then the Police should be consulted, who already have the power to obtain such information under RIPA and other acts.
As previously mentioned no warrant is required, only the request of a sufficiently senior member of staff. The reasons by which this information can be requested are wide-ranging and include preventing/detecting any crime (regardless of how minor) or preventing public disorder, even "in the interests of the economic well-being of the United Kingdom". This is particularly of concerning since Consignia/The Royal Mail --- a commercial organisation --- is given access to information which extremely valuable and in many cases unavailable to other companies. The "economic well-being of the United Kingdom" would seem to permit commercial exploitation of this data.
Since the powers provided by RIPA are already available to all organisations though the law enforcement agencies as part of a criminal investigation, there is no advantage to the public for this order to be passed. In fact the introduction of the amendment would be a significant infringement of civil rights and an unnecessary intrusion of privacy. Furthermore, the protections provided to personal data stored by local government and the other organisations mentioned in the amendment will almost certainly be less robust than those provided by law enforcement agencies. This raises the possibility that traffic data obtained through the amended RIPA could be accessed by unauthorised users, by exploiting flaws in security mechanisms implemented by organisations not well enough equipped to maintain a high level of security. This situation is plausible and could facilitate crimes such as identity theft, or in extreme (but still plausible) cases result in a threat to national security.
I would urge you to prevent this order from being passed and further, to encourage a review of the existing RIPA to ensure that the use of the powers it provides is well regulated and monitored. To prevent abuse, the spying on of citizens should be limited to only those organisations who can demonstrate that the information is essential cannot be obtained through other means. Also monitoring of electronic communication, even traffic data, should be subject to same authorising structure as is in place for covert human intelligence such as stakeouts and wiretaps, and hence require judicial approval.
I would greatly appreciate a reply which addresses my concerns over this urgent matter, and states your opinion on the order currently being proposed.
Yours sincerely
Steven Murdoch.
Additional relevant public authorities for the purposes of section 25(1) of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000
Government departments
1. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
2. The Department of Health.
3. The Home Office.
4. The Department of Trade and Industry.
5. The Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions.
6. The Department for Work and Pensions.
7. The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment for Northern Ireland.
Local authorities
8. Any local authority within the meaning of section 1 of the Local Government Act 1999.
9. Any fire authority as defined in the Local Government (Best Value) Performance Indicators Order 2000.
10. A council constituted under section 2 of the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994.
11. A district council within the meaning of the Local Government Act (Northern Ireland) 1972.
NHS bodies in Scotland and Northern Ireland
12. The Common Services Agency of the Scottish Health Service.
13. The Northern Ireland Central Services Agency for the Health and Social Services.
Other bodies
14. The Environment Agency.
15. The Financial Services Authority.
16. The Food Standards Agency.
17. The Health and Safety Executive.
18. The Information Commissioner.
19. The Office of Fair Trading.
20. The Postal Services Commission.
21. The Scottish Drug Enforcement Agency.
22. The Scottish Environment Protection Agency.
23. The United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority Constabulary.
24. A Universal Service Provider within the meaning of the Postal Services Act 2000.
Steven Murdoch.
web: http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/users/sjm217/
Dear Mr Vernon Coaker,
I am writing due to my deep concern about the RIPA bill due for debate on Monday (24th June). Never before have I been so horrified and, yes, frightened, by an act of parliament as I am about this one. The potential for abuse for what this law will allow is tremendous, and will affect us all - even you.
The bill will allow amost anyone in the civil service to read your email, examine your 'phone records and view the list of which web-sites you have visited - without a warrant, and with precious little accountability. The sheer number of people (untrained and inexperienced in the handling of secret data) who will soon have access to this information means that it will become de-facto public knowledge (unscrupilous post office workers (for example) could make a mint selling such data to journalists and private investigators).
Ask yourself: would you mind having records and transcripts of ALL emails, faxes and phone calls you send or receive available to the media, or perhaps even Conservative central office?
I would like to end by questioning what exactly this law is expected to achive? It will not aid in the arrest of on-line child molesters (it is much easier and more efficient to monitor web-sites and IRC chat-rooms) nor will it have any effect in the fight against terrorism (terrorists will not be foolish enough to use electronic telecomunications). So this leaves me wondering - why exactly does my government want widespread blanket surviallence of the entire population?
Please, it is within your power to try to prevent this bill becoming law. It is inconceivable that the British public WISH to be spied upon in this mannor. I therefore request that, as my elected represenative, you do everything in your power to fight this distrubing bill.
Thank you very much for your time,
Jim
-- And when Justice is gone, there is always... Force. --Laurie Anderson, "Oh Superman"
Article 8
by government agencies!
And the really fun bit here is with things like ssh, or ssl where you don't have the session keys used in the encryption.
So in effect, use ssh, go to jail.
Forget the Post Office, that isn't their top priority. It is only included to draw fire.
The easier it is for a government to monitor the population, the easier it is for the government to ignore what the population is saying. Use your voice while they're still listening...
This is just more encouragement for people to adopt strong crypto like GnuPG. Anyone who has the resources can read your internet traffic if they want to anyway, as you will know if you've worked at an ISP. Allowing more groups to legally do so will catch out the criminals who don't know what they're doing (and let's face it, a camel trader from Afghanistan, who whilst maybe being willing to give up his life for the cause, has no idea about crypto). The most dangerous people are the very people who are least likely to be able to protect there secrets.
So here's the deal: we let Consignia monitor the unprotected messages, and anyone who needs to keep secrets can use GnuPG. I don't know about you, but I think this is one case where we can afford to give up some temporary freedom for greater safety, particularly as it doesn't affect us as much as it affects the more clueless of the criminals.
I work for an MP and find the contributions here really disappointing.
MPs, and their constituents, aren't interested in abstracts. If you write to them please give specific examples - like the way the "economic wellbeing" fuction might be abused by these authorities against the public interest.
Remember, MPs will have the images of the twin towers in their minds when they decide what to do - they will say: what if this had been there then, how many lives could it have saved. You may be a libertarian and believe in liberty or death, most MPs and, above all, their constituents, are not!
So deal directly with the issue. Ask MPs whether they really think 9/11 happened because of the lack of RIP powers.
To: Rt Hon Mark Lazarowicz
MP for Edinburgh North & Leith
House Of Commons
London
SW1A 0AA
Sunday 16 June 2002
Dear Rt Hon Mark Lazarowicz,
I am very concerned about the legislative proposal to extend the RIP act to everyday government bodies.
The whole ethos behind the RIP act is a knee jerk reaction to both new technology and the current climate of fear engendered by 9/11.
It has always been a fundamental property of our postal system that guarantees the delivery of what is sent without interference from the agency that handles the package being sent. Indeed, I believe that the rules around non-interference have been in place in this country for centuries - any postal worker found to have interfered with the mail faces the severest of penalties. It is a system based on trust - the trust of the people in the postal system to ensure delivery without any interference.
This country and its government frown upon other states which routinely read their private citizens' mail. It was used by the West as a stick to beat the Soviet Bloc as being the perfect example of A Bad Thing.
Why is it, then, that our government is proposing extending the RIP act to such agencies as the Post Office? Society is built on Trust. We, the taxpayers, are in a contract with our government to provide an environment where we can be safe, secure and healthy. Now, the RIP supporters will suggest that this move is necessary to ensure such a society, but by its very nature, it erodes the basis upon which such an outlook is built.
I urge you to consider the implications of this proposed extension of the Act. We do not live in a Black and White world, where 'Everyone who is against us is the enemy'. At least I hope not.
It is extremely doubtful that such a move would be tolerated if it involved the physical postal system. The parallels between that and the electronic postal systems are too close to allow such a breach of the rights we citizens have built up over our history.
I hope you can find the time to investigate the implications of such an extension, and, obviously, hope that you conclude, like I have, that it is a step too far.
Regards,
Seumas
It seems that there are a whole series of regulations being considered: not just the "Communications Data: Additional Public Authorities" one (no. 15), but the Order Paper also lists 18 "Maintenance of Interception Capability", 20 "Covert Human Intelligence Sources: Code of Practice", 21 "Covert Surveillance: Code of Practice", 22 "Designation of Public Authorities for the Purposes of Intrusive Surveillance", and 23 "Directed Surveillance and Covert Human Intelligence Sources: Additional Public Authorities" Orders.
And these are not being debated by the full House of Commons: instead, they're going before the Delegated Legislation Committee, whatever that is, still on Tuesday 18th. So much for full representation.
Still, my MP has written to the minister in question, David Blunkett, "asking if he would be willing to reconsider the issue in the light of the important points you have raised in your letter and naturally I will let you know whenever I have any news". So it definitely is worth writing to or faxing your MP – it's easy enough to whinge on a web site like this, but we must put our money where our mouths are and make our views known where they might do some good. I'm not hugely optimistic on this one, but you never know until you try, and from the FaxYourMP web site it won't even cost you a penny!
Ceterum censeo subscriptionem esse delendam.
http://www.faxyourmp.com/
Issues to cover when:
1) represents an erosion of civil liberties and basic human rights.
2) reduces the competativeness of UK IT Businesses in the International arena.
3) digital communications should treated consistently with traditional/analogue communications such as letters and phone calls, intercepts should require a warrent issued by a judge.
When coupled with other Government policies such as position on Software Patents, Government position is anti-IT.
Point out that this anti-IT position is so significant to you it WILL effect you voting intentions.
This is the letter I sent my MP to help you decide on what are the important points. As other have pointed out If you really care about this issue please take the time to rewrite it, rather than use it as a form letter.
Martin
---
Dear Mr Alan Johnson,
I write as a Computing Professional and life long Labour supporter/voter who strongly opposes the pending RIPE Statutory Instrument and who is greatly concerned by government policy in the fields of Information Technology and Digital Communications.
The RIPE Act, the pending RIPE statutory instrument and pending Software Patent legislation are doubly damaging to this country; firstly by eroding the basic freedoms and fundamental rights; and secondly are at the expense of the competitiveness of the UK IT sector. A sector set to be a driving force in the world trade and where the UK currently competes on a world stage and leads in many specialised sub-sectors.
The RIPE Act and pending RIPE SI represent a gross invasion of individual rights to privacy and is completely counter to the principals of the Data Protection Act which can be rightly held up as a World Class example of good IT legislation. The Data Protection Act protects both individual rights and competitiveness of UK IT businesses.
If legislation similar to RIPE where proposed for traditional/analogue communications systems such as letters or phone calls, it would be deemed to be completely unacceptable without a second though. There is no requirement on the Post Office to photocopy every letter it carries or BT to record all telephone calls and then store these copies for seven years. However this burden has been placed on service providers who operate in the digital communications sector.
The only difference between analogue and digital communications is the perception that blanket surveillance is possible with digital communication, whereas previously with analogue communication this was simply impossible. However RIPE's requirement to store all '[digital] communications data' for 7 years is also impossible both in practice and theory. The requirement to store transient data that exists for only a few moments and potentially changes thousands (or millions) of times a second actually confounds the laws of physics in some circumstances. The amount of storage space required simply does not exist, and is unlikely to ever exist.
This cost implications of RIPE to Digital Communications service providers are massive, in some circumstances increasing the cost base by several orders of magnitude and are consequently extremely damaging to the competitiveness of whole IT sector.
The massive expansion proposed by the RIPE SI in scope to cover essentially ever Government Department and Agency and not just law enforcement draws obvious parallels between RIPE and the Ministry of Information from George Orwell's 1984. This worries me greatly because it is the thin end of a wedge towards an authoritarian state.
The pending expansion of the patents system to cover computer software is also potentially extremely damaging to the UK IT sector. US companies have been allowed by a poorly managed patent system to accumulate large number of patents on everyday practices, many actually invented in the UK.
Consider the Internet, which is built using a technology called a 'packet switched network' which was invented at Cambridge University but patented in the US. Public key encryption, the mainstay of secure ecommerce was invented in the UK at GCHQ but was also patented in the US.
The acceptance of patents on computer software will force UK companies to honour 30 years of US software patents. Without a corresponding library of patents for reciprocal agreements UK IT will be forced to pay patent fees to US corporations placing them at a considerable commercial disadvantage.
Martin Spamer
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The goverment has no business monitoring the every single detail of what you do.
Why is that so difficult to understand for some???
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
Dear Miss Kate Hoey,
You probably know by now about the statutory instument which is due to come before the House of
Commons next Tuesday, by which the powers given by the RIP bill to demand communication 'traffic'
information will be extended from the initial short list of police, secret services, the inland revenue and customs and excise to add twenty four new bodies or classes of body.
The new list includes local councils, assorted government agencies, the NHS and Consignia.
Bear in mind that 'traffic data' includes not only the sendors and recipients of your emails, phone calls and text messages, but also where you logged on, what sites you browsed (domain, not web page, which should be just enough for people to draw 'fellow-travellor' type conclusions) and where your mobile phone is at any time (and with foreseeable technological trends such as the imminent convergence of GPS and cellphones - so handy for emergency calls or locating the nearest pizza - this may eventually locate your mobile to specific rooms, if not to the nearest metre).
Given the number of these bodies, how will it be possible to monitor suspected leaks or abuses?
For instance, whatever we may think about the result of Brian Paddick's drugs policy, I'm sure that you were as horrified as I was by tabloids trawling a £100,000 reward for 'the dirt' on his private life. With what confidence can you assure me, or yourself, that commercial organisations or wealthy but paranoid individuals won't be able to increase their ability to pry into the affairs of others through the illicit purchase of traffic information?
The recent conviction of two police officers who used unauthorised police computer inquiries as part of their plot to kidnap, torture and possibly murder a businessman's alleged blackmailer shows that classified law and order information can leak into the realm of crime and initimidation. Now think what possibilities this order raises for the politically or commercially powerful to track down whistle blowers, and establish the web of relationships surrounding internal or external 'trouble-makers' in order to identify their point of maximum vulnerability.
I hope you share my conviction that the interests of law and order, and privacy are equally at risk here, and that you will feel able to represent this constituent, at least, by questioning thoroughly the ends, means and consequences of this instrument.
Yours sincerely,
Francis Norton.
Fax your MP couldn't make it much easier.
I even mentioned that I was seriously considering emigrating (true).
Don't let them get away with this - just because Messrs Betcham and Eriksson have got some people distracted (sh*t your pants Ronaldo) - we need to make ourselves heard. While we still can.
This doesn't mean it's off the table: he's saying it will be redrafted, or something. Interestingly he says he "has a son in the data business"(!) who said "Dad, they don't understand what you're trying to do here". :)
He says he's extremely concerned about his own
privacy too. Hmmmmmmmm.
Well done Stand.
How the hell was this modded Troll?
There are reasons why democracy does not work nearly as well as capitalism.
-- David D. Friedman