“A planned British law to give spies and the police wide-ranging new surveillance powers is rushed, does not do enough to protect people’s privacy and requires major change, a powerful committee of lawmakers said on Tuesday,” Michael Holden reports for Reuters.
“Critics say the Draft Investigatory Powers Bill would be the West’s furthest-reaching surveillance law, while tech companies have warned it would damage their own security systems,” Holden reports. “It would force communications firms to collect and store vast reams of data about almost every click of British online activity. The bill would also oblige service providers to help intercept data and hack suspects’ devices.”
“‘Overall, the privacy protections are inconsistent and in our view need strengthening,’ parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) said in a report. ‘The draft bill appears to have suffered from a lack of sufficient time and preparation,’ it added,” Holden reports. “The British bill, which comes before parliament later this year, is being watched closely by governments and tech companies around the world.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: It’s not enough that every Brit alive has a government camera shoved up their ass 24/7/365?
The UK has already slipped far down the slope that they ought to rename the place Airstrip One, but in case you cling to some wisp of hope that the Big Brother genie can be shoved back into his bottle, you should vigorously oppose this snoopers’ charter, the “Investigatory Powers Bill.”
G. K. Chesterton said it best: It isn’t that they cannot see the solution. It is that they cannot see the problem.
There have been people that suggest that we should have a back door. But the reality is if you put a back door in, that back door’s for everybody, for good guys and bad guys. — Apple CEO Tim Cook, December 2015
SEE ALSO:
Apple makes a strong case for strong encryption; some politicians don’t know what they’re talking about – December 22, 2015
Wikipedia founder: Apple should stop selling iPhones in the UK if ‘stupid’ new law banning Apple encryption is enacted – November 4, 2015
UK Prime Minister Cameron backs law to make Apple’s iPhone encryption illegal – November 3, 2015
Ok, I’ll start it off…
If you want to fcuk it up…give it to a politician!
The Brit’s need a modern day Guy Fawkes.
That is exactly what all these sorts of legislation (by any government in the world) is trying trying to prevent.
That’s the inherent problem with all forms of government. Regardless of whatever idealistic intentions they start out with, the primary aim becomes self preservation.
I would like for every company – international or internal to the UK – to preemptively commit to shutting down any internet service that would be impacted by this legislation, should it become law. That would put a stop to it very quickly.
Compare and contrast to the US’s own PRISM please. Come on MDN, don’t be lazy! Having said that, the Chesterton quote is spot on!
The hackers are going to love this. The government collects all the data and hackers come in, pick the data they want and go away. It’s going to be a field day.
I wonder if politicians are going to be excluded from this. If not we are going to find out all about the ones who like to be chained up and have hamsters jammed up their arses.
I’ll get the liberal post out of the way now.
“But its for the children.”
OK, now thats been said, this bill is insane. It’s almost as if they are trying to kill off smaller ISPs until there are only a few massive ones left. Then they can control more easily.
Nah, couldn’t be that.
There is absolutely nothing liberal about this law. Real liberals oppose it.
The last “real liberals” died with the U.S. Founding Fathers.
I’m sorry applecynic, but this law is totalitarian. It could be applied by either a failed LIBERAL government or a failed CONSERVATIVE government. Totalitarianism is where all failed governments meet, no matter where they are on any political scale.
I’ll leave judging exactly how the UK government is failing to the UK citizens to decide. Just know that totalitarianism = failure.
I do agree that fascism can come from the right, or the left, but liberalism respects the rights of the individual and protects them from oppressive majorities and powerful minorities.
I do get your drift though…
The problem apparently is semantics, word definitions. I’m thinking of ‘communist’ revolutions in history which immediately FAIL into totalitarian states. Think of Maoist China. ‘The Party’ becomes the oppressive minority by removing the existence of alternatives. ‘The Party’ is all. It’s the same damned sh*t the ‘fascists’ pull. Both systems are, by definition, immediate failures as demonstrated by both systems immediately expressing their desperation by turning to bad old totalitarianism as the only way either system can control the masses.
Of course, the rhetoric isn’t about ‘control’. But control is the point of totalitarianism. The rhetoric is typically idealism about what they say they want, wish they could have, but can’t because neither system is sane or viable.
I’m in blether mode. . . Within our system in the USA, I very much like some aspects of liberalism. But the worst failure of extreme liberalism is the destruction of personal incentive. If, for example, Bernie Sanders is elected US President, I’d continually keep an eye on the extent to which he promoted personal incentive as opposed to citizens turning to crime for incentives. I say this stuff over and over. I expect there are a lot more insightful POVs on the subject.
i don’t think it is a coincidence that George Orwell was British or the movie V for Vendetta was based in Britain.
The thing is that they can see the problem, a free citizenry, the greatest threat to their power.
We have always been at war with Oceania.
Power is tearing human minds apart and putting them back together in new shapes of your own choosing.
If you want a vision of the future, Winston, imagine a boot stamping on a human face forever.
OCEANIA is here.
Note that totalitarianism, which is what this sick and twisted unwarranted citizen surveillance is all about, is a litmus test for the FAILURE of a government. The UK government is, in essence, admitting its own defeat as a viable and sane system. This is a primary lesson of history. I could not be more sad for its future.
Brits: Please while you can, make outrageous fun of the utter morons proposing this demolition of your country’s sanity. Laughter is the cure for evil.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nations_of_Nineteen_Eighty-Four#Oceania