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. "

Comments

Date wrong

[caek]

It's not been postponed until the 18th (that wouldn't be much time!). stand.org.uk:

"Instead of next Tuesday (18th June), the Commons debate will now take place on the following Monday (24th June)"

My electronic fax to Angus MP

[dunkerz]

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.

Some suggestions for letters/faxes

[sjmurdoch]

Unlike the article states, the debate on the RIPA ammendment has been delayed from Tuesday 18th June until Monday 24th June (see Stand.org.uk). This now leaves you time to fax, or better still, write to your MP.

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.

• Kuro5hin.org article
• More examples from Kuro5hin
• The letter I sent to my MP
• Stand.org.uk
• Foundation for Information Policy Research
• The previous Slashdot article

Re:It gets worse!

[dagenum]

I emailed my MP on Thursday about this and was amazed when I received a personal written reply yesterday. While agreeing with me in general she said there was nothing she could do, here's the last paragraph. "This particular Satatutory Instrumeny is being put forward under the Regulation od Investigatory Powers Act 2000. As the Act has already been passed, the instrument will not be discussed be the whole House of Commons. It will be discussed by a Standing Committee on Delegated Legislation on the 18th June and as I am not a member of that comittee I will not be able to vote on the instrument. You can be sure, however, that the views you express will be represented within what will be a lively debate before the decisions are taken." So unless your MP is in this committee, I can't find a way of getting a list of members, or they are willing to lean on someone they know that is on it there's diddly squat we can do about it. Don't you love living in a democracy.

The letter I sent to my MP

[sjmurdoch]

Remember the discussion of the ammendment has been delayed until Monday 24th of June so there is still time to send a letter or fax to your MP.

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.