Privacy Groups Attack UK ISPs 'Collusion' With Government Snooping

judgecorp writes "Privacy groups have accused British ISPs of a 'conspiracy of silence' over the impact of the UK government;s proposed Communications Data Bill or 'Snooper's Charter.' The letter accuses the SPs of allowing themselves to be 'co-opted as an arm of the state' — and of not telling their customers what they are up to. Under the bill, ISPs can be ordered to store their users' communications data (the who when and where but not the content of emails etc) for police to search through."

Comments

Theresa May co-opted more like

[Anonymous Coward]

We voted Cameron in on the basis that they would end the police/spooks driven surveillance culture. He put Theresa May in the home office, she then tried to implement the reforms, end ASBOs, separate police and spies, curb police secret comments on background checks etc. The things we elected him for.

The police PR division turned on her and started campaigning against her. Police officers were on TV arguing that by curbing background checks, "pedos will kill your children" and other scaremongering, and there's such a fear in the UK, that nobody denounced what they said. Each time an attempt to curb their powers comes along, they went on the attack, citing undisclosed terrorists plots, was another common tactic.

So now she's pretty much tamed, they want more snooping, she's too afraid to go against them, so she's become just another Home Secretary implementing mass surveillance.

So now we have the situation where the police are driving full speed towards a police state, and they are too naive to think of it as a police state.

Who you talk to is none of the govermments business. Tracking everyone as though they're criminals needs evidence that they are a criminal, what the government is doing is hypothesizing that EVERYONE is a future criminal and this EVERYONE should be tracked, and it's ok because we promise not to look at the data unless we think you are a criminal.... but yet EVERYONE is being treated as a criminal and monitored.

Be afraid of criticising the government, because you're being watched.

Re:Theresa May co-opted more like

[Anonymous Coward]

We voted Cameron in on the basis that they would end the police/spooks driven surveillance culture.

Well, that was dumb. Never vote for a conservative on the basis that they'll reduce government power: they might claim that's what they want, but they'll never follow through, because they have to be seen as tough on crime.

Re:2004

[VortexCortex]

We need a hard-nosed leader with a purer-than-the-driven-snow history, to fix this. That's a difficult combination to find. If there's any blemishes in his/her past, the security forces will 'leak' that part of their massive surveillance database to protect their 'good' deeds and eject the leader they don't like.

Or you could just lower your damn leadership standards. That's what we did in the USA...

Re:Well..

[Onymous Hero]

Citation needed. "They" is a bit non-specific.

Here you go, part 3 section 49 of RIPA: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulation_of_Investigatory_Powers_Act_2000

And here is a case where a kid has been jailed for not revealing his encryption keys: http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/361693/teenager-jailed-for-refusing-to-reveal-encryption-keys

Re:Well..

[girlintraining]

Try using google like everyone else instead of expecting other people to do your research.

I googled "They". It came back with 7.7 billion results, none of which were very helpful (yes, I read all 7.7 billion pages, because I'm like, God and shit).

Out of kindness I will help you by telling you that the act is called "Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act".

Ah. Well now, that's much more specific. And British. I suppose I am expected to keep up with all the laws of not just my own country (whose laws are so numerous that even my own government cannot provide an exact count), but all the laws of the other 173 countries (give or take a dozen) as well. I feel like such a failure as a human being for not being able to memorize several libraries of congress' worth of legal documentation and intuitively know which, exact, legal document you were referring to based on the word "They". Thank goodness you didn't mean "Them" though, or I'd be really screwed... there's a lot more of Them than They. Incidentally, They was a terrible movie. I know, off topic, but I thought I'd share.

Now, out of kindness to others, look after yourself.

Well, I do try, but sometimes despite my bestest of intentions, I just can't keep up with all of the internet pundits. It's a personal failing I am working very hard at.