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UK Open Rights Group Crowdfunds Mass Surveillance Explainer
Posted Jan 4, 2016 by Natasha Lomas (@riptari)
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Proof, if proof were needed, that democracy is a cat and mouse game of
PR these days… Civil rights campaign organisation, the Open Rights
Group, is running a crowdfunding campaign to try to raise £20,000 to
fund a challenge to the U.K. government’s own massive PR machine which
is in the midst of driving the draft Investigatory Powers bill through
Parliament and onto the statute books this year.
The draft IP bill, presented to parliamentary in November — and now
being interrogated by a joint select committee of MPs and Peers, due to
report next month — is the U.K. government’s attempt to update and
crystalize the law on surveillance powers in the post-Snowden era.
The bill not only seeks to legitimize mass surveillance activity that
has been ongoing in the U.K. for decades, with little or no public
acknowledgement of this fact until after the Snowden disclosures — and
with activity authorized via obscure legal loopholes such as section 94
of the 1984 Telecommunications Act — it also expands the surveillance
capabilities available to the intelligence and security agencies. For
example by requiring ISPs to store a list of all the websites
U.K. Internet users have visited for the past 12 months. So called
‘Internet connection records’.
This despite European judges overturning blanket data retention powers,
back in 2014, on the grounds that such capabilities
are disproportionate. While, last summer the U.K. High Court also ruled
that the current emergency U.K. surveillance law, DRIPA — pushed
through parliament without proper scrutiny, also in 2014 — is illegal
under European Human Rights Law.
The Open Rights Group is hoping to be able to run its
own, inevitably more modest, public information campaign about the IP
Bill, by turning to Indiegogo to raise £20,000 to make a short film
to explain mass surveillance to the masses and illuminate the
implications for Internet users if the bill passes into law.
Its flexible funding campaign is nearing the end, with five days left
to run and more than £12,500 pledged so far.
“The public have… been repeatedly told that if you have nothing to
hide, you have nothing to fear. We need to challenge this sweeping
statement and show people just what is at stake. We may not have things
to hide but we all have things we want to keep private, safe and
secure. If this Bill is passed, there can be no guarantee that we can
do this,” the group writes on its campaign page.
A key criticism of the IP Bill has been the truncated timetable
afforded to the joint select committee that is hearing views on the
proposed legislation. A member of the committee, the Liberal Democrat
Peer Lord Strasburger, characterized the two weeks afforded to hear
witnesses as “ridiculous“, adding that the government is turning the
process “into a rubber stamp”.
In one witness session held in December before the holiday break, the
committee heard conflicting views on the costs of capturing Internet
connection records, concerns over the implications for encrypted
services — including criticism of the bill’s vague wording — and fears
over sweeping powers to sanction mass hacking of services. So plenty to
be concerned about then.
The Open Rights Group says it wants to launch its public-facing
campaign next month, to coincide with the committee’s report and put
pressure on the MPs and Peers who will be debating, amending and voting
on the legislation in the coming months. The government’s timetable for
passing the legislation is before the end of the year when DRIPA is due
to expire.
“The Government is using fear of terrorism to persuade the public that
they should give up their rights. We need to show more members of the
public that what the Government is proposing is mass surveillance and
it does have serious implications for their privacy and security. We
have just a few months to persuade them, the media and our MPs that
this draft law needs to be changed before it it passed by parliament,”
the Open Rights Group adds.
A £1,500 pledge to be the official sponsor of the planned film has been
bought by U.K. ISP Andrews and Arnold, which has submitted written
evidence to the IP Bill committee — and is a long time campaigner
against Internet censorship and against earlier attempts to legislate
so called ‘Snoopers’ charters’ in the U.K.
Featured Image: Sebastien Wiertz/Flickr UNDER A CC BY 2.0 LICENSE
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* Open Rights Group
+ Founded 2005
+ Overview Open Rights Group is a non-profit organization that
exists to protect civil liberties wherever they are threatened
by the poor implementation and regulation of digital
technology. Since its founding, Open Rights Group has spoken
out on copyright term extension, DRM and the introduction of
electronic voting in the U.K. It has informed the debate on
data protection, freedom of information, data …
+ Location London, H9
+ Categories Non Profit
+ Website http://www.openrightsgroup.org
+ Full profile for Open Rights Group
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