CyberLaw Blog

Archive for August 6th, 2009

Internet firms resist ministers’ plan to spy on every e-mail – Times Online

From The Sunday Times, August 2, 2009, Internet firms resist ministers’ plan to spy on every e-mail
David Leppard

Internet firms have condemned the government’s ‘Big Brother’ surveillance plans as an ‘unwarranted’ intrusion into people’s privacy.

The companies, which ministers are relying on to implement the scheme, also say the government has misled the public about how far it plans to go in monitoring internet use.

The criticism, contained in a private submission to the Home Office, threatens to derail the £2 billion project, which ministers claim is essential to combat terrorism and crime.

Despite hostility from opposition MPs and civil liberties groups, government security officials want to be able to monitor every e-mail, phone call and website visit of people in the UK.

They point to the increasing use by criminals and terrorists of internet telephone calls, social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter and online chatrooms to hide their communications. The government claims it wants simply to ‘maintain’ its capability to fight serious crime and terrorism.

However, the submission — by the London Internet Exchange, which represents more than 330 firms including BT, Virgin and Carphone Warehouse — said: ‘We view the description of the government’s proposals as ‘maintaining’ the capability as disingenuous: the volume of data the government now proposes [we] should collect and retain will be unprecedented, as is the overall level of intrusion into the privacy of citizenry.

‘This is a purely political description that serves only to win consent by hiding the extent of the proposed extension of powers for the state.’

The rebuke is the latest blow to the plans to allow police, the intelligence services and GCHQ, the government’s eavesdropping centre in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, to monitor all web communications. Ministers have already been forced to drop plans for a central database holding records of all e-mails, phone calls and website visits.

In April Jacqui Smith, then the home secretary, tried to salvage the plans. She announced that £2 billion of public money would instead be spent helping companies retain the information for up to 12 months in separate databases. She asked the industry for its views.

Apart from accusing ministers and officials of hiding the truth from the public, the internet firms dismissed the plans as technically unworkable.

In a statement earlier this year, GCHQ denied that it planned to spy on every e-mail and website visit in the UK. The internet providers, however, made it clear they do not believe that denial.

‘These new proposals suggest an intention to capture anything and everything, regardless of the communications [method] used. We have grave misgivings about the technical feasibility of such ambition,’ they said.

‘We are not aware of any existing equipment [an internet company] could purchase that would enable it to fulfil a legal obligation to acquire and retain such a wide range of data as it transits across their network … in some common cases it would be impossible in principle to obtain the information sought.’

In some cases, they said, the data might not even exist on a firm’s network but on a foreign server.

The internet providers also complained that the new proposals might be illegal under European or human rights laws. They said the plans would involve the collection of data ‘which is unprecedented both in volume and the level of intrusion into personal privacy’.

The firms said: ‘We are not satisfied that the existing safeguards adequately protect the public, our members’ customers and end users, even with regard to the current regime let alone the far more intrusive proposals under discussion.’

They added that they feared for what would happen to their customers’ data once it was handed to the security services. Recent scandals, including the loss of the private bank accounts and home and addresses of 25m people registered for child benefit, have damaged the government’s reputation for dealing with such data.

‘Given the government’s recent track record in failing to maintain the security of data collected from the general public, the public will require reassurance on this point,’ said the submission.

Last night a Home Office spokesman said: ‘We know that this is a complex and sensitive subject, with a fine balance to be made between protecting public safety and civil liberties. This is why we launched a public consultation.

‘We have had a number of responses that we are currently considering. We will be responding in due course.’

Somerset man arrested over alleged piracy site: “A Somerset man has been arrested on suspicion of a criminal breach of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act. The man is said to be involved with Filesoup, an alleged file-sharing website.”

(Via OUT-LAW News.)

YouTube clarifies ban on privacy invasions, harassment and threats: “YouTube has clarified the conditions under which it would remove videos that invade people’s privacy or harass, impersonate or threaten them.”

(Via OUT-LAW News.)

Pirate Bay faces civil lawsuit, exec departure: “A group of major film studios has taken court action in Sweden to have The Pirate Bay shut down. The site’s founders were found guilty on criminal charges of facilitating copyright infringement earlier this year but the site remains live.”

(Via OUT-LAW News.)

Trade libel lawsuits soar: “The number of defamation cases brought by businesses has trebled in the past year, according to a legal publisher. The number of defamation cases overall increased by a third in the same period.”

(Via OUT-LAW News.)

Emails and phone calls did not establish a contract, rules Court of Appeal: “A series of emails and phone calls were not sufficient to establish a contract, the Court of Appeal has ruled. The communications did not contain enough information or the formal qualities necessary for a contract to have been made, it said.”

(Via OUT-LAW News.)

Here is some interesting news, finally! )

Finn turns to ECHR after prosecution for discussing DRM cracking: “A Finnish man has asked the European Court of Human Rights to defend his right to discuss encryption systems used by the entertainment industry. He says that Finland’s implementation of the EU’s Copyright Directive restricts his right to free speech.”

(Via OUT-LAW News.)

Hmmm.

Facebook and MySpace drive teens to suicide, says Vincent NicholsThe spiritual leader of the four million Roman Catholics in England and Wales has damned social network sites, accusing them of undermining community life and leading teenagers to suicide

(Via Tech and Web from Times Online.)

Spooky stuff!

Apple tried to silence owner of exploding iPod with gagging orderApple attempted to silence a father and daughter with a gagging order after the child’s iPod music player exploded and the family sought a refund from the company.

(Via Tech and Web from Times Online.)

I wondered when they would issue this warning in the UK!

Police warn over rise of teenage ’sexting’ trendPolice, parents and children’s charities have expressed alarm at a growing trend dubbed ‘sexting’, where young people send explicit and indecent photos to each other using their mobile phones.

(Via Tech and Web from Times Online.)