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

Fax MP

[tomasdore]

Also http://www.faxyourmp.com/, which does what it says on the box.

Re:Fax MP

[jweatherley]

That's what I did when this unholy bill was first announced asking why any of the listed groups could have access to emails, mobile phone and ISP logs without so much as a warrant. Read that list - it's beyond belief what they're trying to get away with. The only one I can see a justification for is the Home Office as they deal with crime and internal security.

Within two days I received a reply signed by the man himself which suggested that he agreed that there were privacy concerns here and he has forwarded my concerns to the home secretary. So I await Blunkett's justification for all this with baited breath.

It's nice to see that they have delayed the debate but the House of Commons is so stuffed with New Labour drones that they will be able to whip whatever fascist legislation they want through there. Still if this proposed legislation does concern you write to your MP and let your views be known. Who knows maybe even New Labour will deign to listen to the electorate if enough people kick up a fuss.

It gets worse!

[Dr_Cheeks]

Oh Lord! The original act was bad enough, but now they want to give The Post Office!!!! (among others) access to traffic data w/o a warrant or anything!

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).

wake up call...

[OzPhIsH]

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.

Summary of what the legislation would effect.

[Warmth Is Life]

It took me a while to find a clear and concise link. Here it is.

Looks like a pretty ugly violation of privacy.

How long until it gets abused..?

[Dynamoo]

How long until it gets abused? Well, probably about 5 seconds in my opinion. Look, I have to real objection to anti-terrorist or anti-organised-crime bodies such as MI5, MI6 or Special Branch having this sort of access - Echelon has been doing this for a while anyway, it's just a logical extension of those powers for intelligence services.

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.

Goverments

[kiowa]

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!