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Privacy Groups Attack UK ISPs 'Collusion' With Government Snooping

Posted by Unknown on from the must-have-something-to-hide dept.

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."

3 of 91 comments (clear)

  1. Theresa May co-opted more like by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

    1. Re:Theresa May co-opted more like by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      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.

  2. Re:Well.. by Onymous+Hero · · Score: 5, Informative

    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