[governance] UK - Plans for extra email and web monitoring powers spark privacy fears

[Riaz K Tayob]

[ perhaps a workshop on what the south can learn from the advanced 
democracies on regulation of the net may be useful...]
Plans for extra email and web monitoring powers spark privacy fears

Conservative MP David Davis leads criticism of coalition's bid to revive 
extra powers to snoop on emails and social media

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    Hélène Mulholland
    <http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/helenemulholland> and Robert
    Booth <http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/robertbooth>
  * guardian.co.uk <http://www.guardian.co.uk>, Monday 2 April 2012
    10.03 BST
  * Article history
    <http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/apr/02/email-web-monitoring-powers-privacy#history-link-box>


david davis
David Davis MP has criticised plans for extra powers to monitor emails 
and internet use as unnecessary Photograph: Martin Argles for the Guardian

David Davis <http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/daviddavis>, the former 
Conservative shadow home secretary, has warned that government plans to 
introduce a law allowing police <http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/police> 
and security services to extend their monitoring of the public's email 
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/email> and social media 
communications are unnecessary and will generate huge public resentment.

Davis spoke out after it emerged a new system will allow security 
officials to scrutinise who is talking to whom, and exactly when the 
conversations are taking place, but not the content of the message.

The coalition's proposals are likely to be introduced in the Queen's 
speech on 9 May and will focus on internet 
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/internet> service providers (ISPs 
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/isps>) gathering the information 
and allowing government intelligence operatives to scrutinise it.

Labour tried to introduce a similar system using a central database 
tracking all phone, text, email and internet use but that was dropped in 
2009. It followed concerns raised by ISPs and mobile phone operators 
over the project's feasibility, and anxieties over who would foot the bill.

Civil liberties campaigners have strongly criticised the revival of the 
plan because of the risk it could breach the privacy 
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/privacy> of law-abiding Britons.

The Conservative MP for Haltemprice and Howden, who famously quit his 
seat to trigger a byelection over the Labour government's 42-day terror 
detention plan in 2008 
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/jun/12/daviddavis.conservatives>, 
said legislation was unnecessary. Current surveillance arrangements 
under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act and the unwarranted 
checks on "who calls who" were already "too loose".

"I'm afraid what this does is makes it 60m times worse," Davis told the 
BBC Radio 4 Today programme.

The coalition government had vowed -- and enshrined in the coalition 
agreement -- 
<http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/sites/default/files/resources/coalition_programme_for_government.pdf>to 
"end the storage of internet and email records without good reason" in a 
section on civil liberties that espouses the way the British state "has 
become too authoritarian".

Davis said: "What is proposed is completely unfettered access to every 
single communication you make. This argument it doesn't cover content -- 
it doesn't cover content for telephone calls, but your web address is 
content. If you access a [website], that is content.

"I'm afraid it is a very, very big widening of powers, which I'm afraid 
will be very much resented by many, many citizens who do not like the idea."

A similar attempt in Germany two years ago led to 35,000 complaints to 
the supreme court, which subsequently struck it down, he said, warning: 
"I suspect the same thing will happen here."

He added: "It's going to cause enormous resentment. Already thousands of 
people on the web are objecting to it. It was dropped by the last 
government ... if it was so important, they should have kept going last 
time."

Anthony Glees, director of the Centre for Security and Intelligence 
Studies at the University of Buckingham, pointed to the recent killings 
in Toulouse, France, supported the measures, saying it needed to be done 
"because it can be done".

He told Today the measures were important in the year of the Olympic 
Games and the Queen's Diamond jubilee. Terrorists can be monitored and 
attacks dealt with, he said, accusing critics such as Davis of getting a 
"bit obsessed" with privacy, which he said "militates in favour of the 
people who want to take the liberties of the rest of us".

Davis pointed out that if the legislative plans were going to be in the 
Queen's speech next month, they could only be implemented in late 2013 
at the earliest.

The Home Office confirmed over the weekend that the plans would be 
brought forward "as soon as parliamentary time allows".

The Home Office said: "It is vital that police and security services are 
able to obtain communications data in certain circumstances to 
investigate serious crime and terrorism and to protect the public.

"We need to take action to maintain the continued availability of 
communications data as technology changes. Communications data includes 
time, duration and dialling numbers of a phone call, or an email 
address. It does not include the content of any phone call or email and 
it is not the intention of government to make changes to the existing 
legal basis for the interception of communications."

Lord Carlile, a Lib Dem peer and a former independent reviewer of 
terrorism legislation for the government, said he expected parliament to 
demand strict safeguards on any new powers.

"There is nothing new about this," he told Today. "The previous 
government intended to take similar steps and they were heavily 
criticised by the coalition parties.

"But having come into government, the coalition parties have realised 
this kind of material has potential for saving lives, preventing serious 
crime and helping people to avoid becoming victims of serious crime.

"We are talking about the updating of existing practices."

Lord Carlile said he would expect parliament to demand the setting up of 
an independent board to monitor activity.

Isabella Sankey, director of policy at Liberty, said: "Whoever is in 
government the grand snooping ambitions of security agencies don't change.

"The coalition agreement explicitly promised to 'end unnecessary data 
retention' and restore our civil liberties. At the very least we need 
less secret briefing and more public consultation if this promise is to 
be abandoned".

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