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Sir Tim Berners-Lee Accuses UK Government of "Draconian Internet Snooping"
An anonymous reader writes "According to British daily The Telegraph, Sir Tim Berners-Lee has warned that plans to monitor individuals' use of the internet would result in Britain losing its reputation as an upholder of web freedom. The plans, by Home Secretary Theresa May, would force British ISPs and other service providers to keep records of every phone call, email and website visit in Britain. Sir Tim has told the Times: 'In Britain, like in the US, there has been a series of Bills that would give government very strong powers to, for example, collect data. I am worried about that.' Sir Tim has also warned that the UK may wind up slipping down the list of countries with the most Internet freedom, if the proposed data-snooping laws pass parliament. The draft bill extends the type of data that internet service providers must store for at least 12 months. Providers would also be required to keep details of a much wider set of data, including use of social network sites, webmail and voice calls over the internet." Jimmy Wales doesn't seem to be a very big fan of the UK snooping either.
Google already collects all this data and much more. They have analytics and various scripts like jquery embedded on around 99.9% sites. Facebook handles the rest. With Google closely working with NSA and other agencies, who cares? They already have the data right there. Google is officially the internets big brother, already!
Right to privacy? Nope. Freedom of Speech? Nope.
Although I think all the conspiracy theorists are crazy, the new world order is the eventual coalescence of the violation of inalienable rights and it's frequency of occurence across all nations.
Data collection/mining/snooping/browser profiling is so commonplace that pointing the finger in one direction seems almost wrong.
Your data is already being sold to advertisers by your phone company, by any form you filled in your details, by any "free!" email account etc. So many different companies and bodies are collecting data and personally identifiable information that we're becoming apathetic to it.
We need strong legislation and standards to make sure data collection is kept to a necessary minimum without infringing any further on privacy.
Some think an alternative to missing legislation is obfuscation of data. This requires a bit of an effort to give deliberate misleading details, temporary emails, use proxy IPs. This is not feasible for the vast majority.
We, the people, must strongly voice our discontent about such matters. Let's remind government officials that although the MAFIAA buys them lunch, it has a price.
A 'singular oddity' is an event that cannot be explained and only happens when you are alone.
Which "reputation as an upholder of web freedom" would that be? The one based on them censoring Wikipedia for showing an album cover? Or the one where you have to hand over encryption keys or be thrown in jail?
Proud member of the Ferengi Socialist Party.
Even if you're not happy running an exit node, you can help speed up the Tor network by running a relay. All traffic through a relay is encrypted and kept within the Tor network, so you remain unidentifiable. It also helps obscure when you yourself are using Tor.
Finally had enough. Come see us over at https://soylentnews.org/
What some people don't realise is that there are a large number of Muslims. A quarter of these sympathise with terrorists, and six percent saying that bombing the underground in London is completely justified. With 2,869,000 Muzzies that's 172,000 odd who think its fine to commit terrorist acts, and 717,000 odd who would sympathise with them when they do. Obviously wherever possible subservience should be targeted at the Muslims, but we all need to expect some increased level.
In particular white converts should be subject to extra scrutiny, as they seem to be more likely to be involved in extremism. I think it was Robert Spencer who said that maybe hearing Imams calling for murder daily from a young age has an "inoculation's effect" on born Mulsims, many of whom disobey the Qur'an and Hadith by living peacefully with non-Muslims and treating them as equal.
"Muzzies" - Seriously? At the very least, you need to cite reliable sources if you are going to post racist inflammatory comments.
Good luck with logging social network use. Facebook and Twitter at least seem to use https by default for me. Unless ISPs can force people to download trusted certificates for a proxy that decrypts, logs, then re-encrypts their facebook usage, they won't be seeing much.
Incidentally, I run my own mail server. I relay my mail through it using TLS, and it too uses opportunistic encryption when contacting other SMTP servers. My ISP sees nothing but encrypted data going past. Many public SMTP servers now are supporting opportunistic encryption and supports 256 bit encryption (in fact, if you want to pass a PCI-DSS ASV scan, then if your mail server supports encryption it must disable all weak ciphers).
(Disclaimer: I don't live in the UK, but I do live in a British crown territory - whether a similar law is passed here is not guaranteed, for example we don't have anything like the RIP Act)
Oolite: Elite-like game. For Mac, Linux and Windows
...surely he was intelligent enough to know from history that all total information awareness campaigns are ultimately used to oppress the people who are supposed to be empowered by information.
And when he allowed half a dozen big businesses to essentially take over and steer W3C in their image, surely he knew that any altruistic or academic value in W3C would be diminished.
Alas, the man is saying, "I've set something up for you. I've allowed you to take it over. But it concerns me." Well, it should concern you, TBL. But, next time you give a knife to a serial killer, don't expect him to use it to cook you a delicious meal.
"According to British daily The Telegraph, Sir Tim Berners-Lee has warned that plans to monitor individuals' use of the internet would result in Britain losing its reputation as an upholder of web freedom."
...
I assumed there was someone monitoring my use of the Internet, which is why I've always been cautious, at least with my home usage
AccountKiller
In a dictatorship run by queens and kings or dictators and fascists, the only solution is serious blowback in the form of civil war by those who want their freedom against those who take it away. The day the home secretary has to pick up a rifle and shoots at the people who want their freedom, it will become quite clear just what to do about this snooping bullshit in all countries. Why wait anymore? It's not like they're going to install less cameras and less fios splitters. You either boycott your communications infrastructure (not likely) or you fight physically and take the fucker back!
Dedicated to the chicken shit trolls in this thread who keep calling real conspiracy tin foil hat
Sweden already does this, we finally beat uk in being a police state!
There may be lots of companies TRYING to gather data, but that doesn't mean they get anymore than newbies give them. My ISP cycles IP numbers to prevent IP address tracking, and of course I turn off cookies and flash local storage. I don't use Facebook or any other service that datamines private info, and I ask friends and family to never post about me if they insists on using FB.
On the other hand, I'm pretty sure I'm monitored to prevent me saying things about the military here in ..., you know what, lets not go there.
That's the effect of monitoring, it makes you less free to speak out about the police or military state you live in. UK is definitely a police state, this policy is driven by the police, and Theresa May, well she's just the current scared politicians being driven by the need to keep the police happy.
The last one, Jacqui Smith even started out with a central big database of all the transactions to be searched by the secret police at will. Then it morphed into a distributed database, still a database, held by the ISPs, that could be remotely queried. She thought that simply moving the database somehow stopped it being a database.
I wonder if the secret police will want VoIP recorded next, they're already reputed to be using voice recognition over mobile phones to perform mass surveillance the population. You know what, I was going to look up the link, but I didn't fancy typing [gchq voice surveillance] into Google lest it flags me as suspicious.
Lots of rozzers, all thinking they're making Britain better, when actually they are the biggest threat to freedom the UK faces now.
The Australian Government is doing the same thing:
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/12/09/04/1825205/australian-attorney-general-pushes-ahead-with-govt-web-snooping
For the first time in history people can communicate freely en masse and it scares them.
Where are mod points when you need them?
Singularity: a belief in the "God" idea with the "demiurge" relation inverted.
We have to accept reality. Data retention is a fact. Laws are passed just for form. Google, Facebook, Skype, ISP's, etc, etc, etc are all in the business of collecting data on a much vaster scale than any law proposes.
It's not about stopping laws. It's about creating technology that makes it impossible to snoop.
Tor is a good start, and i recommend it, but Google and Facebook for example block you from opening accounts over TOR (because your IP constantly changes) if Javasript is not on. They want to know who you are.... Wether for themselves or because of higher powers, I do not know.
The movement to stop laws is futile. It will happen sooner or later. Our energy needs to go into rethinking how our technology should work. I no longer have a Facebook account, I do not Skype, use DuckDuckGo and closed my Gmail account. Until solutions come along, this is the only way. If everyone does the same it will be over very quickly. Money is the only pressure point that works. All it takes is enough people.
(And for those banking on HTTPS; this is no longer secure if your snooper has control of the infrastructure. )
The source of this junk law is the European Union. It just so happens that the UK has implemented this directive. Others will follow suit if they haven't already!
"On 15 March 2006 the European Union adopted the Data Retention Directive, on "the retention of data generated or processed in connection with the provision of publicly available electronic communications services or of public communications networks and amending Directive 2002/58/EC".[1][2] The Directive requires Member States to ensure that communications providers retain, for a period of between 6 months and 2 years, necessary data as specified in the Directive"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telecommunications_data_retention#European_Union
How long after collecting this data will some be found on a USB stick or laptop in the back of a taxi, like so much of our personal data in the UK.
Benign world controllers dealing with dissent by setting up island colonies where highly intelligent people can go and build their own societies, while running a strict hierarchical society which manages to keep almost all its citizens healthy and happy? I wish! My feeling at the end of reading BNW for the first time was "Helmholtz Watson, lucky bugger. How do we make this happen?".
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
I kind of think if "they" want to fuck you over it doesn't matter how youbehave they'll find some way to screw you so it's not always worth the hassle of hiding everything you do, especially as hiding everything could look extremely suspicious even if you're hiding for the sake of hiding.
My captcha word seems somewhat appropriate: cohort
Maybe a HTTP over BitTorrent maybe.
Something that is not tcp, and encrypted (not just byte for byte ,but with -bogus bytes- mixed in to round up the size of traffic, so all files under 128 bytes will be all the same size, 128 bytes so LEOs cannot even use file sizes to narrow down your access).
Something that talks to many servers to get the content.
This would require a whole new server design, or proxy wrapper to existing http servers, but yeah bittorrent http would work.
A) bittorrent server can server all the http files
B) your browser can re-server cached content to other browsers in your LAN or ISP subnet, or B class.
Anyone?
Start coding, make it truly difficult and so expensive for the govt, it would cost billions to achieve.
Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
:-)
When the records (public records by the way) of the expense claims by MPs were FORCIBLY revealed, even in that case they redacted the address of second homes owned by the MPs.
They cited that this information would lead to a greater need for security at these addresses.
Problem:this information is publicly available too, in the electoral register (which even if you're not published, merely means you have to go to the local council to find the information).
When it comes to THEIR information, even if it's ENTIRELY public information, they refuse.
The Onion Router. Yes, probably not perfect, but better than nothing. Also, the Commercial SIGINT Operations are cut out of the game. Yes, they do exist.
The current government do not care about Internet Freedom.
What they do care about is Competitiveness .
Come on. Snooping? We are talking about the organization holding the special right to initiate physical force against you as a business model.
Snooping is what your nosy neighbor does. When "snooping" is conducted by government, it is called oppression. Don't give them the benefit of the doubt.
Narus Insight
Let's see, invent a distributed, decentralized, (relatively, for the time) uncensorable content publishing system with no embedded copyright or payment mechanisms, or even hooks, and sell it to consumption-economy oriented governments, banks, brokerages, trillion-dollar IP cartels and so forth as the way of the future, then, after the inevitable wrong-headed, after-the-fact, procrustean protection tech wars, and socially, culturally, and sovereignty destroying attempts at larcenous and corrupting fiat policing have not perfomed as expected, especially not for the users, bleat about loss of freedom and ask for more intervention by MP's.
This could be a fit subject for irony, but I'm going to be blunt. Berners-Lee is being incredibly stupid. Or disengenious. Tell me which. What next, Sir Tim, Freedom Police?
Vote the bastards out, power to the people!!!
Jack of all trades,master of none
How unlike, how very unlike, how the Republicans treated Clinton. Now that was a shameful episode.
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
No sir, it was UK Labour party that pushed for the law in the first place when they held the EU Presidency.
There was a big protest back in 2005 over this, since it had more to do with Blair tongue in Bush's rear than any other purpose.
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number3.14/retention
"His plan to push through data retention during the UK presidency of the European Council, no matter in what pillar, met with great protest. The Social-Democrats, the Greens and the Liberals all referred to the legal advices recommending the issue should be dealt with in the first pillar, i.e. on a directive proposal from the European Commission and with full co-decision from the European Parliament. The liberal rapporteur on data retention, Alexander Alvaro, perhaps used the strongest words when he said "the LIBE Committee was not to be pushed into blind obedience" by the UK. "
It's hardly worth being a technical specialist in the British secret world. The real reason that Thatcher wanted Spycatcher banned was because it revealed just how badly technical experts were treated in comparison with the Old Etonians, and might have dampened recruitment. Here's a hint: If you are any good, you can easily earn more teaching maths in a UK secondary school than you can being a codebreaker for the Secret Services. No, I can't prove it, but I have good reason to believe it.
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
I suspect the insurance companies didn't argue the toss with the EU because the statistics were trending towards equality anyway.
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
The UK drove it through when they held the EU Presidency in 2005, Tony Blair claimed it was needed to counter terrorism and that the Human Rights legislation needed to be reduced.
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number3.18/attackonhumanrights
Naturally, since they held the EU Presidency, they ensured only pro-surveillance people were allowed to debates:
"Given the attitude of the UK presidency, it is no surprise that civil rights advocates are not invited in Newcastle. They were only given a chance to respond to a consultation organised in September last year by the European Commission. European Digital Rights and Privacy International used this occasion to produce a thorough legal analysis. "
Britain's government wants to know *EVERYTHING* that all it's subjects do at all times, *EVERYTHING* that they say, write or otherwise communicate to anyone else, and *EVERYWHERE* they travel... and to keep detailed permanent records of all this data forever.
The British government was very smart to get guns out of the hands of its subjects and to foster and foment a public mentality that only govt should have guns, lest some day the subjects get tired of being subjects and desire to be citizens instead.
There are only few Upholders of Web Freedom in the UK. Sir Tim Berners-Lee OM, KBE, FRS, FREng, FRSA isn't one of them, since he's in Mass., USA. The Pirate Party UK is definitely one of them. With enough support it can also actually do something about it, instead of just being a forum of discontent, while tonight we'll just watch footy on the telly with a pint of ale in our hand.
When the copyright term is "forever minus a day", live every day like it's the last.
I'd say that a high death-toll is pretty terrifying, but it's somewhat in relation to the chance of one (or one's relations/friends/etc) being potential victims of a future attack.
There's a combination of visibility and impact
More people harmed = likely more of impact and visibility
Harmed in a cruel/unusual way = Higher visibility (see the recent killings in France)
People die due to violence in big cities all the time. After reading about it in the news you become desensitized to reading about gang violence and bystander harm, etc if it's not in their neighbourhood. However, take a few higher-profile cases like the Canadian greyhound killer or the "bath-salts" attacks, the gruesomeness and randomness makes it a lot more frightening.
Same effect if a lot of people die at once, particularly in a violent/gruesome way.
Dying is scary to most people. A lot of people dying gets attention. Or to quote a similar way of thinking in Firefly:
Mal: [so only Jayne hears him] Now, you only gotta scare 'im.
Jayne: Pain is scary.
Pain is scary. Death is (generally) scary. Lots of death is more scary. Lots of gruesome death is really scary, but it also increases the risk of retaliation or alienation of those that support the terrorists. The IRA wouldn't have gotten much support for targeting large amount of children, etc. Religious battles sometimes get away with this more because they play the "godless heathen" card, but even that doesn't work beyond a certain level (and note I say religious, as *MANY* religions have been involved in atrocities)
> like in the US
More ignorance of the law. The local sheriff around here (in the US) does not have access to my web browsing habits, on demand, at his work, without a warrant.
"According to British daily The Telegraph, Sir Tim Berners-Lee has warned that plans to monitor individuals' use of the internet would result in Britain losing its reputation as an upholder of web freedom .. The draft bill extends the type of data that internet service providers must store for at least 12 months
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Q: How's your driving record?
"Clean. Real clean. (pause, thin smile) As clean as my conscience", Travis Bickle
AccountKiller
"Even if you're not happy running an exit node, you can help speed up the Tor network by running a relay. All traffic through a relay is encrypted and kept within the Tor network, so you remain unidentifiable. It also helps obscure when you yourself are using Tor."
And your IP is published in the clear as a relay for anyone's view at certain Tor status pages. Enjoy the possible attacks.
The better suggestion is to run a Tor Bridge, where your IP may be released to certain people for a limited time, but not published and possibly archived on various Tor status pages.