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Leaked Document Reveals UK Plans For Wider Internet Surveillance (zdnet.com)
The UK government is planning to push greater surveillance powers that would force internet providers to monitor communications in near-realtime and install backdoor equipment to break encryption, according to a leaked document. From a report on ZDNet: A draft of the proposed new surveillance powers, leaked on Thursday, is part of a "targeted consultation" into the Investigatory Powers Act, brought into law last year, which critics called the "most extreme surveillance law ever passed in a democracy." Provisions in proposals show that the government is asking for powers to compel internet providers to turn over the realtime communications of a person "in an intelligible form," including encrypted content, within one working day. To that end, internet providers will be forced to introduce a backdoor point on their networks to allow intelligence agencies to read anyone's communications.
To paraphrase Henry David Thoreau.
How much time to UK turn into North Korea?
That's OK. Being part of the EU means us Brits can take it to the European courts and even if that doesnt work we can up sticks and move to another EU country if we don't like how our government is behaving.
Hang on, someone's whispering something in my ear......
This just in, we're f*cked.
I'm thinking that if you are making things like this legal then you're well on your way to losing the right to call yourselves a Democracy.
Appended to the end of comments you post. 120 chars.
This is hilarious and just goes to show how ignorant these lawmakers really are regarding technology. Pass whatever secret surveillance laws you want, you won't be breaking RSA-4096 anytime soon, and when you can, cryptographers will have devised something better. What a utter and ridiculous law. Tools of the oligarchs...
Did you ever wake up in the morning, with a Zombie Woof behind your eyes? -- FZ
every message sent by a Brit should now include the entirety of the US library of congress with it, i'm sure they will appreciate the information.
Tally ho!
The ISP is the weak link. We need a solution to render them obsolete.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
Isn't this the usual pattern?
Government and data companies: We be all up in your shit.
1% of people: make well reasoned, nuanced arguments about why that is a bad idea.
99% of people: "does twitter still work? it does? and tinder too? erp, what's the problem then??? ignore those nerds and keep us safe!"
Government and data companies: Thanks! We'll carry on.
So... any reason to suspect this won't be the same as all the other times?
which critics called the "most extreme surveillance law ever passed in a once democracy."
"The likes of Facebook and WhatsApp are free to those whose privacy is of zero value."
No surprise to see this from the nanny state, but the ignorance in these politicians that think this would actually work is ridiculous! Secure encryption just isn't that hard to do. Regulations like this are only going to impact ordinary citizens and the most inept of criminals. Underestimating organizations like ISIS, as if they could not employ unbreakable encryption trivially, is a huge mistake. It actually puts the public at *greater* risk. Oh well, at least we'll be able to watch what the (former?) UKIP idiots are up to.
Why do people keep referring to modern governments as "democracy"??? Have YOU voted on the issues? NO! Democracy is where We The People actually VOTE on issues.
Current modern governments are representative, and the problem is: We The People are NOT being represented. The best fix is to FIRE the bastards. We need much more frequent elections: I propose at least twice a year.
And we need either a People's Lobby, or shut down ALL lobbying.
Why is it that social media addicts post everything you never wanted to know about their lives online for all to see, and yet if you were to demand to see their internet history, they would run around and scream like a rabid monkey, totally offended over such an invasion of privacy.
Either give enough of a shit about your privacy to try and stop the destruction of it, or don't give a shit about any of it. Fucking pick one already.
That's what this sounds like. I feel sorry for you Brits. Your government is going downhill even faster than ours is, which is saying something.
This is always what you get for electing rightwing governments.
Philosophy humor, not everyone gets it. Kind of like Psychology humor, not everyone gets id either.
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
...was British.
Coincidence? I think not!
He just got the date slightly wrong.
I never understood this kind of shit happening in the UK. The US can sorta offer the excuse that there are hundreds of millions of people here, many are idiots, they are spread far and wide across an enormous space and often cluster in rural areas in small towns made up of flaking paint, baling wire and groupthink. They get power and authority over these areas and sometimes this power and authority translates into a successful state or federal position. But the UK is so much smaller by land mass and population. I'd expect that such a limitation would insulate it from the dangerous morons from taking the reigns. Has the UK entirely become apathetic to their current path? It seems to be true for the US for the time being but there are so many more hurdles to overcome and minds to change in the US.
Every time I see how bad things seem to be getting in the UK, I have to shake my head while being thankful that the US still hasn't gotten so bad in most places. But I digress, maybe it just seems as though through red white and blue colored lenses.
I already hold a variety of governments as being terrorist organizations, because of their involvement in warfare, torture, and other things indicative of a nation state run amok, so this relationship can't get worse with this the way i see it.
At least the crazy fascists are proposing the impossible.
There is no way that mad laws, created by authoritarian lunatics can practically be implemented. Technically what they want to achieve is impossible. The result will be a UK regime exposed to significant liabilities for fixing the security problems that they create, while those who need real encryption will just implement it. Nothing an fascist regime can do about it. Encryption is accessible, easy to obtain, and impossible to block. The conservative party is bogged down by inept and uneducated fools. They seem to think that this ideology can actually be implemented, irrespective of technical reality. How embarrassing to Britain.
We don't need no stinking First Amendment in a parliamentary democracy! >:-(
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
....scientists have shown that water is still in fact wet.
How are they going to intercept TLS communications like e.g. HTTPS?
The UK has crazy high insurance coverage (despite having less risk) - far above the US so their people may be bigger cowards or at least more risk adverse than the USA? It doesn't surprise me they can be SOLD security at such high prices.
Perhaps their longer exposure to the FOX-NEWS empire (sky news and related propaganda rags) is the reason for this?
When the web security requires 3rd party verification the way it does and with the few companies easily accessible by the USA... it may not make mass decryption possible but it makes attacks against groups possible. We need to move to a different cert system-- without singular cert authorities. My local secretary state dept should issue certs for every incorporated business, for free... that signing would help on 1 level... then other parties could also sign. When the parties DO NOT align then you have a security problem. At least the NSA has to hack multiple parties (including if you self sign in addiction to 3rd parties) in order to monitor/inject. That is assuming if the encryption itself hasn't a secret fast solution.
Democracy Now! - uncensored, anti-establishment news
Britain is full-on becoming a Police-State as fast as they can, and their people are allowing it. I guess the book 1984 wasn't enough of a warning even in the author's homeland.
People vote for incumbents because they are the lesser evil when given only 2 choices. The amount of money necessary to get a primary challenger's name out is so large that incumbents are almost never taken out at the primary stage. So it will come down to a D vs R, and the districts have been carefully carved up so that it will almost always be the same party picked (which is normally the incumbent's party). What we need are term limits for ALL political positions.