UK Passes An Instrusive Surveillance Law For A Democracy

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WhatInThe

SF VIP
The UK has just passed what is considered a very an intrusive surveillance law for a democracy. The law has been called 'the snoopers charter'.

http://www.zdnet.com/article/snoopers-charter-expansive-new-spying-powers-becomes-law/

Included a web users history must be stored for one year, enables and/or gives hacking powers known as 'equipment interference'. Some consider it an updated version of a 2000 law called Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act(RIPA). Even the UN and some tech companies opposed it.
 

We in the UK didn't find it all that oppressive.

Because of the general checks and balances we have in place (e.g. the Government being stopped from illegally initiating Brexit) the powers are not as draconian as they would appear in some parts of the world.

Our security services have always gad the power, with safeguards, to intercept our mail and telephone calls. I think the general principle was established by Pitt the Younger to counter the very serious threat from French agents in Napoleonic times. He had a massive network of deep over agents, masquerading as enigres, moving in the highest circles, a bit like the modern wave of immigrants.
This legislation simply extends that into the digital era in the light of the current ongoing terrorist threat, and international hacking.
 
WhatInThe said:
The UK has just passed what is considered a very an intrusive surveillance law for a democracy. The law has been called 'the snoopers charter'.

http://www.zdnet.com/article/snoopers-charter-expansive-new-spying-powers-becomes-law/

Included a web users history must be stored for one year, enables and/or gives hacking powers known as 'equipment interference'. Some consider it an updated version of a 2000 law called Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act(RIPA). Even the UN and some tech companies opposed it.
Click to expand...

The UK may have passed a "Law", but in reality, this data collection is an ongoing thing in nearly every nation....it just has been formalized with a "Law" there. Virtually every supplier of a "Browser"...Google, Mozilla, MS, etc., maintains a huge data base of their subscribers activities, probably going back at least a year. Mostly, this data is used for advertising purposes, but with a court order, it could probably be accessed by the authorities. Anything resembling Privacy on the Internet, or Social Media, is pretty much non-existent. If you type it in, or text it, it will most certainly be archived by the providers. Here is Googles list of data centers..worldwide...and you can bet that the others have similar facilities.

https://www.google.com/about/datacenters/inside/locations/index.html
 

Don M. said:
The UK may have passed a "Law", but in reality, this data collection is an ongoing thing in nearly every nation....it just has been formalized with a "Law" there. Virtually every supplier of a "Browser"...Google, Mozilla, MS, etc., maintains a huge data base of their subscribers activities, probably going back at least a year. Mostly, this data is used for advertising purposes, but with a court order, it could probably be accessed by the authorities. Anything resembling Privacy on the Internet, or Social Media, is pretty much non-existent. If you type it in, or text it, it will most certainly be archived by the providers. Here is Googles list of data centers..worldwide...and you can bet that the others have similar facilities.

https://www.google.com/about/datacenters/inside/locations/index.html
Click to expand...

I agree. Some form of Big Brother is everywhere on the net.
 
The scary thing of course is hackers being able to access the same information more easily than anyone wants to imagine. On another paw however I feel if " snooping" will thwart even a handful of possible terror attacks it's a good thing. So they can monitor how many piano playing cat videos we watch?
 
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