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UK Local Councils Spy On Emails and Calls
MrSteveSD writes "The Daily Mail is reporting that local councils have been using the controversial Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) to spy on people's phone and email records. Reasons given for the surveillance include checking for evidence of people storing petrol without permission and investigating unburied animal carcasses. The surveillance was uncovered using Freedom of Information laws. The scope of the RIPA act is staggering. It would be simpler to list who isn't allowed to access your phone and email records. Aside from political action, what can be done technologically to combat this threat? Use Skype rather than the normal telephone?"
Who needs it? *sigh*
The cops want sound with the video from CCTV cameras. They were tired of having to hire silent movie pianists while they watched the citizenry.
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
As with all too many of the UK Government's policies, this was introduced with the express intention of dealing with suspected terrorists.
Unfortunately, we Brits are about to get repeatedly hit over the head with the Terrorism Act (2000) - used recently in the case of a man who downloaded the 'Manchester Manual' from the US Department of Justice's servers, and was then arrested - and the Civil Contingencies Act - which allows the Government to suspend democratic process in a 'state of emergency'.
At the present time, the Government are also trying to push through 42 days detention without charge, despite there being no evidence to justify such an increase from the current (and already excessive) 28 days.
I am, like many people I know, looking to leave the UK for a new life abroad.
Also my local council used the law to spy on a family trying to give their kids a decent education http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/apr/11/localgovernment.ukcrime
Or if you want you can download the forms to apply to spy on someone form here http://security.homeoffice.gov.uk/ripa/about-ripa/forms/
Forbid councils, and other government bodies in general, from accessing phone records and email? Forbid law agencies from taking finger prints? Make it illegal for the police to arrest you on the off chance they make a mistake? More people were getting convicted of committing crimes they had nothing to do with 20 years ago when we didn't have all this technology. Now we have it and can improve on false convictions and you don't want to use it?
UK Local Council in "Wasting Tax-Payers' Money and Being Crooked" Shocker. Film at 11.
Next week: local resident arrested for 42 days without charge for putting the bins out too early.
I went for a job in local government just last week and one of the interview questions was "What legislation, acts and policies are relevant to the job?"
I mentioned all the usual - data protection act, freedom of information act, computer misuse act, health and safety at work act as well as standards policies like BS7799 etc. and then I also mentioned RIPA.
The guy interviewing gave the response "Oh I'd not heard of that one before".
Perhaps I should've kept my mouth shut.
This is a country where the most popular entertainment is watching a TV program where people in a house are recorded 24 hours a day.
I doubt people here care that much.
At least they are still giving reasons for the surveillance :)
We won't really be in trouble until they stop with the rationalizations altogether..
Right?
*sigh*
Comment removed based on user account deletion
If people really had nothing to hide, then clothing stores would go out of business.
Perhaps that's why some of the best men's clothiers are from England.
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
Inevitably, when a discussion of privacy in a country other than the US arises, people come out of the woodwork to make comparisons to US policies even though the article has fuck all to do with the US.
Guess what? In many countries you can also be detained "forever" (which is an inaccurate analysis of the Patriot Act anyway, please post a link to a court decision proving otherwise if you have one (you don't)) so what's with the hard on about the US?
Why do so many foreigners have such an inferiority complex about the US?
ISPs might keep header logs, but for the most part that's just going to stay on some arbitrary webmail server or be downloaded directly to the target's computer.
And how do they differentiate between spam with forged sender/return addresses and genuine E-mail, if they don't have the mail message contents?
Which councils? I want to see the full response.
British ISPs are required to keep email header logs for later inspection under RIPA, soon to be joined by website requests. Contents of emails are supposedly not recorded, just the header sender/destination trail etc. It's supposed to be somewhat analogous to phone logs, which are also available on demand by lots of different organisations under RIPA.
The primary purpose the councils are putting it to are establishing 'known contacts' of someone they already have under investigation, or simple identifying of someone when they only have an email address or a phone number. To go and confiscate a home computer would require a proper warrant, and calling in the police.
That said - councils can sign off these investigations on their own with no oversight from the courts at all, until they gather enough evidence to start a prosecution of some sort, or hand over to the police. That low level non-elected beaurocrats can pull up all sorts of information on people, or even establish physical surveillance with no input from the police or courts, or even oversight within their own organisation is truly scary.
Remember kids, it's all fun and games until someone commits wholesale galactic genocide.
TFA says these laws were only intended to be used in case of national security. Inferring the law had been used incorrectly. Therein lies the rub. Define national security. The same could be said for defining terrorist or sexual deviant. It seems to me no one crossed a line using these laws improperly. That's the problem. Once the {insert whomever here} lost his/her rights, so did I.
-[d]-
Does the UK have a FOIA now? Last I knew, that was an American law (unless they have their own, or this was somehow discovered by things received from the American government).
Well, ok, that may be the summary's fault, because the article just mentions "freedom of information" laws, not FOIA itself.
But it's STILL a story in the Daily Mail, and not what I'd call a reputable source. Can anyone confirm this with a better source, or are we being trolled here?
That's not what I asked for and betrays your ignorance of the US judicial system.
I asked for court cases FOR A REASON. You link is useless.
Care to try again, or will you admit there ARE NO COURT CASES that demonstrate you are correct with your assertion?
WHere did I use the word "inappropriate" or even imply it? I was making an observation about the inevitability of such a comparison when a non-US country is portrayed in a bad light, as some kind of ridiculous tu quoque defense mechanism.
No problem :) Saw you in the message center, too. Let me know via anon OT replies if you find any good anime, because I generally read all replies to my posts. I'll try and remember to do the same for you.
I'm getting Code Geass now, BTW, but it'll be a while before I get to watch it.