Posted on 13-3-2003
UK
Govt. Retreating On Electronic Spying
By Nigel Morris Home Affairs Correspondent,
Independent, 12 March 2003
Editor's note: If the New Zealand Government insists on slavishly
following the USA and UK, let them follow the UK's retreats from
anti-democratic laws, let's have the Crimes Ammendment bill, the
Telecommunications Interception bill and the GCSB (legalisation) bill
stripped of their legitimisation of capability to secretly trawl
electronic communications and crack the computers that carry
them.
Article:
David Blunkett has retreated from moves to givea wide range of public
bodies access to telephone, internet and e-mail records.
The Home Secretary admitted that he had blundered by drawing up plans
last summer for what soon became known as a "snoopers'
charter". The proposals, authorising Whitehall departments and local
councils to access private information, have been watered down after
opposition from civil liberties groups and computer
professionals.
Mr Blunkett has still given approval for a series of organisations,
including town halls, to have access to some communications records.
Under the new proposals, five organisations with responsibility for
"the investigation of serious crime, protection of national security
or provision of emergency services" would for the first time have
automatic access to private records.
Fire authorities, the ambulance service, the Maritime and Coastguard
Agency, the Atomic Energy Authority Constabulary and the Scottish Drugs
Enforcement Agency would be able to demand details of telephone calls and
e-mails sent and received. They would also be able to obtain information
about the location of mobile phone users.
In addition, 21 organisations would be able to obtain more limited
information, such as the names and addresses of telephone users and
internet subscribers. The groups include trading standards officers in
councils, fraud investigators in the Department for Work and Pensions,
the Immigration Service, the Serious Fraud Office and the Royal Mail.
Parish and community councils, which were included on the original list,
have been omitted.
The right to access would be limited to designated individuals within the
organisations and all applications would have to follow rules to protect
against abuse. All demands would be subject to the oversight of Sir
Swinton Thomas, the Interception of Communications
Commissioner.
Mr Blunkett said that among those who had criticised his original
proposals was his son Hugh, a computer programmer. In a foreword to
yesterday's Home Office consultative document, he said: "I take
concerns about intrusion into privacy very seriously. I value my own
privacy and would be as concerned as everyone else if I thought my mobile
phone or other communications data could be easily available to an army
of officials."
He added: "Our preferred option is to reduce drastically the number
of public authorities allowed to access the full range of communications
data and to apply a range of additional restrictions and safeguards to
the remainder."
But a spokesman for Privacy International, a human rights group, said:
"The Government has conceded almost nothing. The number of
government agencies having access to this sensitive infor- mation has
hardly been reduced. And the consultation paper offers no guarantee that
the list will not be indefinitely extended."
John Wadham, the director of Liberty, said: "The original snoopers'
charter proposals were appallingly excessive. We welcome much of the
government plan to step back from them." But he called for a judge,
as "the only truly independent safeguard", to be given
oversight of the proposals.
Jeremy Beale, the head of e-business at the Confederation of British
Industry, said: "The Home Office is now showing a genuine commitment
to engaging with industry concerns. This appears to be a more
business-friendly approach to data protection that tries to avoid loading
firms with excessive burdens."
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