News UK government plans emergency data retention law

*gives personal details to open rights group in protest....open rights group snooped on by government for political activism...my details captured....me snooped on because of potential for political activism....*

That the repercussions of wanting to have my voice heard is enough to make me reconsider whether or not to actually speak out is precisely the position they want us in, and it's disgusting. Orwell would be waving a giant "I told you so" flag at us all if he were able.

Worse still is that the rationale for needing most of this (we prevented 'x' because of 'y' email) might very well be a work of fiction in and of itself.

 

Well it wouldn't be the first time politicians have told us they need to take action because the boogie man will get us if we don't.

 

One step closer we plod like sheep to the compulsory intravenous implantation of RFID markers.

When will the " nothing to hide" brigade realise we are all being rolled over by JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Deloitte and The Rothschilds.

 

That's the thing, that's what really twists the knife - it's all so obvious and painfully predictable, but we're all too sedated to barely raise an eyebrow over it. Remind me, provided you're not jewish, homo etc. why would a Nazi takeover have been so bad?

 

I thought they had.

The British people have got so used to being walked over by the government we just accept it as the norm.

 

And with all the hatemongering against foreigners from Tories / UKIP / Media the UK will leave the EU removing the only safeguard against overly invasive Government spying.

 

@Anfield.........UK will never leave the EU under Tories, Labour or Liberals.

Money will cease to exist as we know it within 5-8 years.

They want and need us to do all our transactions digitally, so they can track every aspect of our lives,
Close banking premises, lay off people, cut expenditure and maximize profit.
This enables them to sell our consumer profiles to insurers, retailers and merchandisers who systematically target us with offers we cannot refuse.

Do you think your store loyalty card is a valuable asset to you?
Not as valuable to you as it is to the global marketing machine?

The mobile phone u hold is an intrinsic part of your govt surveillance of you, it holds unbelievable power to track, it is gathering information about you at an exponential rate. It has gasped all your social nuances and known associations, your most private thoughts and intimate details.

It will collate these until it is useful or fitting to use this against you, the ubiquitous front-facing camera can not be truly turned off, so while u are looking at your screen it can be remotely accessed in real time to see exactly what you are up to, and who is using the phone.

The same applies to the new TV u just got with a built in camera for Skype (lol), now they see your living room, i hope you ain't shagging on the sofa dude. (Remember the Iranian centrifuge sabotage where the USA remotely destroyed Iran's capability to produce heavy water by corrupting the software that the machines in a secret underground facility operated on). Go google it, you could not make it up! haha.

Also with the up and coming facial recognition sample we will all have to submit to obtain documents like a driving licence, a passport, a birth certificate or probably even a bank account, i hope you all have practiced your selfies..

Paypal recently froze bank accounts and effectively hijacked the money against a kickstarter company that had found a way to encrypt private emails so the NSA and GCHQ could not read them...on the order of the US govt? A Swiss bank being bullied by USA.
In parliament today, an emergency bill was quick fired through and passed immediately without reply, that overturns a EU ruling last week that says: ISP and phone companies are now NOT required to record and keep EVERY communication for at least 3 years.
The UK govt today over rode this EU ruling under the public's nose so it can opt out of this ruling and continue to surreptitiously monitor, record and keep all UK private comm's without restriction against the wishes of EVERY other EU state.
They will tell you this is to counteract terrorism....what a complete load of horse plop.

But the same old people will still stand defiant and say "if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear".
Yeah, good luck with that.

 

In before chemtrails...

 

By the way, the but it will stop the Pedophiles if the Government can spy on everyone excuse is rather silly...

Just have a read through this: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/n...abuse-at-east-belfast-boys-home-30419926.html

 

This is so retarded, if they are going to strip us of our freedoms then why are they even bothering to protect us from "terrorists"

The only people this hurts are the public, "terrorists" are going to find a way around it in 2 minutes.

It's like knife and gun laws, they don't help anyone, they only hinder the innocent. If someone is going to use a knife or gun to kill they aren't going to go "wait hold on, if I'm caught carrying a knife twice I could go to prison".

Soon we will be arrested because our minds can be used as dangerous weapons.......

Sent from my SM-T325 using Tapatalk

 

I don't think the uk will need a referendum on Europe, at this rate they'll be kicked out!

 

This isn't the first time this particular boogie man has been used to scare people into accepting the monitoring of everyone's private lives though is it. It's worked once so why not use it again ?

 

But the phone/mobile companies aren't keeping anything that they wouldn't normally keep, anyway - just the same thing that appears on your phone bill. AFAIK, the ISPs are just keeping records of the websites you visit and who you send emails to. In both cases, no actual data is kept.

As for why the authorities might need that data? It's to track back the contact history of suspects - who were they communicating with, what sites were they looking at? It still requires a warrant for the authorities to be able to access, it's not as though they can go snooping through the data at will.

About the emergency? It's because the ISPs etc. were threatening to delete the data they're holding and stop recording new data after the ECJ ruling. The government didn't want this to happen, so they're acting as quickly as they can to prevent it happening.

This is, of course, separate from the data that GCHQ allegedly gathers, which is a whole different kettle of fish ballgames.

 

Do phone/mobile companies keep records for 12 months then ? I would have thought they kept them for a shorter time than that, maybe a month or two. And I'm fairly certain they don't record where you were when you placed a call.

Just because no data is kept on the contents of what your e-mails and SMS messages contain, what web sites you visit, doesn't mean it's a proportional response.

There is no questioning the value of being able to track back who a suspect has communicated with.
What is being called into question is if keeping tabs on every single person in the country is proportional, if TPTB suspect someone of being involved in serious crime shouldn't that be when the recording of data begins ? Not this whole sale blanket approach of recording everything and everyone just in case.
Doesn't that, as the ECJ ruled breach my right to privacy ?

And while you are correct in saying they can't go snooping through it at will, doesn't the fact that all this data is there in the first place make it more likely that they will apply for a court order and be granted it ?
From a FOI request we know that in 2009 there were more than 51,000 requests for communications data, rising to more than 56,000 in 2010 and nearly 57,000 the following year, are TPTB really telling us there were 57,000 serious crimes in 2011 that they needed the communications data to resolve ?

But the ECJ ruling that the data retention law was in breach of a citizens right to privacy was 3 month ago, doesn't it seem a bit suspect that all of a sudden we need emergency legislation.

And if it's an emergency why is the sunset clause set for over two years from now ? Why not 6 or more months so parliament can discuss it properly. Would it be because there is an election next year and the politicians don't want to be shown in a bad light ?

By carrying on with the recording of everyone's communications data are we not breaching those exact same rights ? Has the government not opened it's self up to now being taken to The European Court of Human Rights ?

 

Exactly. Well put.

 

Define "proportional"
If your child is lost, presumed dead, wouldn't you want the police to be using every tool in their arsenal to find potential suspects?

But then the authorities would only be able to track people from the point they became aware of them. No historical tracking would be available, so there'd be less of a chance to find associates.

Couldn't say, I'm not a data expert.

That's more to do with the people granting the requests than the bill itself.

I agree that there needs to be oversight of the requests, and that the process needs to be tightened to make sure that access is only granted where absolutely necessary. Those numbers in and of themselves don't mean anything without knowing why those requests were made.

No. It's become an emergency because the telecoms/ISP companies are threatening to start deleting data without a valid piece of legislation that requires them to keep it - so the government is acting to stop that happening.

That is probably a very good reason in the politician's minds I'd also say that it's there to ensure that the bill is reviewed to make sure that it is fit for purpose and still required.

I wouldn't know, IANAL, but I thought that the legislation was being changed (and rushed through) to ensure that it complies with the ECJ ruling.

I'm not saying that the legislation doesn't have its problems, but in my mind it's less to do with the data gathering and more to do with the lack of oversight of who is granted requests and for what reasons, and how many requests have been made.

 

Well it's always more urgent when an emotive spin is put on things, but that isn't how politicians should be passing laws. Politicians should be making judgments based on the facts, not on how they, or the country as a whole feels.

You mean like in the olden days, when the police and security services actually relied on investigations, and not just recording everything and sorting the mess out after the fact.

If TPTB know it's a simple matter of applying for a court order aren't they more likely to do that, versus getting a court order and then having to spend time gathering evidence.

Something that we will never know. Is it right to recorded who, when, and in some cases where everyone is in the country when they have a private conversation, are we not treating everyone as guilty'(ish)
I would disagree that those numbers don't mean anything, it's fairly clear in my mind that the law is being abused. Well unless we really do have 57,000 people each year either intending, or have committed a serious crime.

But they knew this 3 months ago, so why rush through legislation in a single week, with no chance for our elected representatives to discuss the implications.

We hold our selves up as a beacon of a democratic society, yet we are rushing through legislation with no chance for that democratic process to effect anything, and in contravention of the European convention on human rights that we are signatory of. It doesn't speak much of how we value democracy and human rights if we are so willing to throw those principles away.

AFAIK the law ceases to be in December 2016, during that time they have to draft a new law with regards to how they want to deal with data retention and how far they want to go when it comes to gathering data or spying on their own citizens.

I maybe getting my ECJ mixed up with my CJEU, and my ECtHR So many courts it's hard to keep track of them.
AFAIK the law isn't being changed in the strictest sense of the word, back in 2004 after the Madrid train bombings some European court changed what was a voluntary code for communications providers to store communications details for up to 12 months into a law. As part of the EU we had to adopt this law, but AFAIK we only adopted it into secondary law

What the differences between secondary and primary laws are is beyond me, but i think because it was only secondary law and due to the recent ruling by one of the courts in the EU that said blanket data retention was not proportional, and in breach of the rights of EU citizens to a private life the secondary law that we adopted from the first ruling could now be challenged, or was no longer valid.

To me it seems similar to what we have done with CCTV, watch and record everything then you don't have to prevent crime, or bother gathering evidence as you have everything everyone does recorded just in case.

 

Just received this update

Open Rights Group

We're facing some tough fights for digital freedom at ORG.

When the Data Retention “emergency” legislation was announced ORG staff worked together as fast as possible to stop the Government's attempt to push the ECJ's ruling and the right to privacy under the rug.

You help us fight this now by joining ORG: https://www.openrightsgroup.org/join/

With 9 years of expertise on Data Retention law we were ready and able to make a stand.

Our Campaigner and Supporter Officer emailed thousands of you to let you know what was happening and created the action to let you contact your MP. We wrote blog posts and tweets to spread the word around the world. Our Policy team drafted a briefing to MPs on the issue. Our Legal Director was able to speak about a Judicial Review of Data Retention to the press. Our Executive Director was on the BBC and Sky debating the need for this legislation.

Between us we made sure that #DRIP was not going to gently trickle through Parliament.

That's what we do.

The rushed through Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Bill is a deliberate attempt to ignore the courts, and violate human rights.

What makes it particularly galling is that all three parties have backed this in the face of public outrage over mass surveillance.
But the fact is they are breaking the law. So if the Bill is passed, we'll be there taking the UK Government to court. We will fight Data Retention again and again until they get it right.

Joining ORG means that we can challenge this politically and legally. These campaigns are vital to defend human rights.

Thank you for your support.

Best wishes,
Ruth

P.S. To read more about the Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Bill and our past work on Data Retention we have a series of blog posts and briefings on the issue.
https://www.openrightsgroup.org/blog/

 

@Yadda, flibblebot

You both appear to be a part of the problem. Cattle.

You are getting spam 20 times a day on all your devices because of the illegal collection of your data, it is being whored to everyone especially those with cosy government relations....Google..Facebook...linkedin..All the insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies...Paypal.

Do you honestly believe that the information collected is currently not acted on?

Jeez!

 

Moo!

(That's cow speak for I don't jump on conspiracy bandwagons.)