Just say no (to blanket data retention)

It’s been a hectic couple of weeks since I last blogged, mostly due to a combination of returning to work and picking up a rotten cold (sadly, I think the two may be connected). Despite this, I’m pleased to say I’ve still managed to keep most of my campaigning commitments with Bournville Labour and even make time to take part in a planning session for Open Rights Group organisers at BOM on Saturday.

Just say no (to blanket retention of personal data)

Despite everything going on, I came away from the ORG campaign day with a renewed sense of purpose to keep on campaigning for digital rights in the year ahead. This boost probably explains why I’ve just spent some time this evening responding to a somewhat soul-destroying Home Office consultation on a code of practice governing the Investigatory Powers Act, the creepily dystopian surveillance and hacking law which shuffled onto the statute books in late 2016.  I’ve posted below the contents of my email below at the bottom of this post, in case anyone is interested in the issues I’ve raised.

Essentially, the consultation is in response to last year’s judgement by the European Court of Justice, which stated that blanket retention of everyone’s personal data was illegal. The court judgement set out restrictions on retaining and accessing personal data, with the aim of making it a targeted system focused on serious crime, and requiring independent authorisation (usually a judge) before authorities can access personal data. Disappointingly but not surprisingly, the Home Office is choosing to interpret the judgement selectively, leaving in place the blanket data retention whilst (grudgingly) conceding the need for independent authorisation.

Stand up for yourself and show solidarity with at-risk groups

Given the well-documented history of surveillance powers being (mis)used against politicians, journalists, activists, whistleblowers and other groups, I encourage you to take part in the consultation and demand that the Home Office honours the court’s judgement and respects our human rights. You’ve got until 11.45pm tomorrow (18 January) to submit your response. click on the link below to speak up.

Rein in the Investigatory Powers Act

Dear Home Office,

This is a response to the consultation on Communications Data code of practice under the Investigatory Powers Act 2016, closing 18 January 2018.

As a UK citizen who believes in the rule of law, I am deeply concerned that you are using this public consultation in order to delay having to implement changes as a result of last year’s ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union declaring the Investigatory Powers Act’s indiscriminate retention of data illegal.

As well as being concerned about the delay caused by the public consultation, I am also very concerned that you are taking a ‘pick and choose’ approach to the Court of Justice’s ruling. For me, the most important element of the judgement was that it established that indiscriminate retention of personal data illegal. Despite this, you are still proposing to allow blanket retention of everyone’s personal data. By taking this approach I believe you are flying in the face of the court’s judgement and appear to have little or no regard for the rule of law and citizens’ fundamental rights. I urge you to comply with the court’s judgement and end blanket retention.

I am also alarmed that you do not plan to notify people that their personal data has been accessed, even after an investigation has concluded. Given the history of surveillance and anti-terrorism powers being inappropriately used against politicians, journalists, activists, whistleblowers and other groups, I believe introducing a credible notification system is important for rebuilding trust in the system and reducing the likelihood of future abuses. Furthermore, I believe the fact that we as citizens are unlikely to ever know if our personal data has been accessed creates a ‘chilling effect’, whereby just the understanding that authorities could access our personal data with little meaningful oversight discourages citizens from freely expressing themselves.

I read with dismay that you will also not be protecting our personal data by keeping it within the EU. I am particularly concerned that this means you will continue to allow my personal data, along with that of my fellow citizens in the UK, to be transferred to the United States, whose laws afford zero protection to non-citizens’ data. I urge you to reconsider your position and keep personal data within the EU.

Lastly, ask that you adopt a reasonable definition of serious crime so as to ensure authorities adopt a reasonable and proportionate approach to accessing personal data, and which takes proper account of the impact retaining and accessing such data has on our fundamental rights. With this in mind, I ask that you adopt the House of Lords’ definition of serious crime, namely crimes capable of sentences of at least one year, rather than your current, lower, definition of a six month sentence.

I hope that your honour the court judgement and implement it in full rather than the selective approach your current proposals would suggest.

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,
Francis Clarke

Back to the drawing board? How you can help ensure the government learns from serious criticism of the Investigatory Powers Bill

Yesterday, I blogged over at Open Rights Group Birmingham about the latest twists and turns in the development of the Investigatory Powers Bill, the government’s plans to increase online surveillance and permit widespread hacking of computer networks.

You can read the full post here.

Open Rights Group Birmingham meetup tomorrow

If this post piqued your interest in online privacy and you live in or near Birmingham, you might like to come to the next Open Rights Group Birmingham meetup, which is happening tomorrow (Wednesday 17 Feb) from 6.30pm at Birmingham Open Media.

At the meetup we’ll be teaching people simple, practical things they can do to protect their privacy and security online. I’m pleased to say we’ve had a really good level of interest in the event, with over 20 people down to attend. If you can’t make it along tomorrow, we’ll be holding regular meetups throughout the year.

 

 

Has the science and technology committee struck a blow against the Investigatory Powers Bill?

As an organiser for Open Rights Group Birmingham, I have followed with interest and not a little weariness the twists and turns as the government’s draft Investigatory Powers Bill makes its way through the pre-legislative scrutiny phase.

Today, the House of Commons science and technology committee published a highly critical report on the bill, with its chair, Nicola Blackwood MP commenting:

The current lack of clarity within the draft Investigatory Powers Bill is causing concern amongst businesses. There are widespread doubts over the definition, not to mention the definability, of a number of the terms used in the draft Bill. The Government must urgently review the legislation so that the obligations on the industry are clear and proportionate.

In particular, the report highlights the following problems:

• The feasibility of collecting and storing Internet Connection Records ICRs – including the very real problem of keeping these highly personal records from (non state-sanctioned) hackers.
• Anxiety amongst communication  providers over the ability to use effective encryption, which Blackwood recognises is “important in providing the secure services on the internet we all rely on“. The committee particularly wants the government to provide greater clarity over the status of end-to-end encrypted communications, where decryption might not be possible by a communications provider that had not added the original encryption.
• Concerns amongst certain communications over ‘equipment interference’. For some providers, such as Mozilla (the makers of Firefox), this concern appears to stem from a genuine concern for its users’ privacy and the integrity of the internet. For other providers, the concern is more about how a perception of hacking could hurt their competitiveness in a global market for services.
• Uncertainty over costs. Coverage of the committee’s report has downplayed the risk associated with spiralling implementation costs, both for government and businesses. At last cost, the Home Secretary has put the cost of implementing the new ICR system at £247 million but the report notes that costs are likely to change (i.e. rise), given the uncertainty and rapid pace of technological change.

It’s worth noting that the committee’s remit was purely to look at the technical feasibility of the government’s proposals and how these might affect communications businesses, not whether the communications monitoring provisions or whether they are proportionate to the threats they are intended to deal with. These issues are expected to be addressed by the joint committe Joint Committee established to scrutinise the draft Bill as a whole.

I believe the criticisms levelled at the bill in this report are significant for a couple of reasons.

Firstly, by focusing solely on the technical feasibility of implementing the bill, it manages to side-step the highly polarised debate between privacy and security advocates. This report says, irrespective of your views on the merits of expanded monitoring of communications, you should be concerned as a citizen and taxpayer about the feasibility of implementing the government’s plans at anything approaching a sensible level of expenditure.

Secondly, by holding up the prospect that the Investigatory Powers Bill will do real harm to the growing UK tech sector, the report will hopefully encourage the government to modify its approach, if only to protect its supposed reputation for business confidence.

Both these signals – questions over the feasability of implementation and the likely damage to the UK’s growing tech sector – will not  in itself be enough to stop the Investigatory Powers Bill becoming law, but it’s a start.

The Joint Committee is due to deliver its full report on the Investigatory Powers Bill no later than 17 February. It will be interesting to see whether this committee takes a similarly critical stance on the merits of expanded monitoring provisions and the limited amount of time the committee was given to scrutinise the bill.

Cost of Investigatory Powers Bill could undermine UK Tech sector – full details of science and technology committee report

Science and Technology Committee of Parliament slams Snoopers’ Charter – Open Rights Group’s reaction to the committee’s report

What Shami Chakrabarti can teach us about valuing civil liberties and human rights

As a member of the civil liberties organisation Liberty, it was with sadness that I read earlier this week week that Shami Chakrabarti is stepping down as director  after 12 years in the role.

Shami Chakrabarti’s list of achievements – from overurning compulsory ID cards to challenging  internnment of foreign terrorist suspects and, most recently, providing strong challenge over the government’s plans to scrap the Human Rights Act and greatly expand online surveillance – are all the more remarkable when you realise she joined Liberty the day before September 11 attacks in 2001. While I may still find myself despairing at the British political establishment’s respect for citizens and civil society, I can see that without Chakrabrarti’s principled leadership things could be a lot worse.

Chakrabarti has written a thoughtful piece for The Guardian to coincide with the announcment of her depature from Liberty. In it, she notes: “When fear stalks the land, blank cheques become all too easy and ever more dangerous.” This defintiely rings true of my recent experience campaigning against the Investigatory Powers Bill as part of the Open Rights Group. For me, the lowest point of the campaign (so far – it’s not over yet!) was when David Cameron sought to use the Paris Attacks to justify an attack on encryption, despite the fact that the terrorists had in fact coordinated the attacks using regular unencrypted text messages.

I was also struck by another of Chakrabarti’s observations:  “We all love our own rights and those of friends, family and people like us. Other people’s freedoms seem cheaper until it’s almost too late.” Again, I have encountered this in my campaigning for the Open Rights Group. The common response of “nothing to hide, nothing to fear” when privacy concerns are raised in relation to the Investigatory Powers Bill reflects many people’s belief that they (and by extension, their friends and family) will never be adversely affected by expanded online and so we need not worry ourselves about the balance of power between citizen and state.

While I will be sad to see her go I can understand her reasons for stepping down, given the pressure and responsibility she must have felt over the past 12 years. I would like to thank Shami Chakrabarti for everything she has done to defend civil liberties and human rights.

My Highs and Lows of 2015

I’ve missed the boat. As I sit down to write this post, the fourth day of 2016 is already drawing to a close.

If I were a better blogger/person, I would have already have written my 2015 round-up and published it in the sweet spot between Christmas and New Year when there’s a flurry of such posts.

Instead, I was caught up in a flurry of holiday hosting and socialising which has only just come to an end. As John Lennon might have said, life is what happens when you’re not busy making other plans.

While I was experiencing 2015, it often felt like the lows were getting the better of the highs but looking back I can see there were a few ‘champagne moments’ along the way.   So, without further ado, here’s a brief round-up of the key events from possibly the most eventful  year in my life.

The Highs

1. Going freelance as a digital communications specialist and working with the lovely team at Helpful Technology  to deliver their digital confidence and skills programme across Whitehall.
2. Launching Open Rights Group Birmingham and working with passionate and principled people to protect and promote human rights in the digital age and oppose the Government’s controversial Investigatory Powers Bill.
3. Getting involved with my local Labour Party in Bournville, helping my local MP Steve McCabe more than double his majority at the General Election in May and creating the Cats of the Campaign Trail blog.
4.  Photographing Birmingham Beer Bash for the third year in a row and having my photograph of Dismaland picked up by media outlets both here in the UK and abroad.
5. Getting some much-needed good news towards the ends of the year about health issues which have affected my family throughout 2015.

The Lows

1. Being made redundant from my role as Communications Manager for ARK Kings Academy in Birmingham, due to a funding shortfall.
2. Worries over family health issues, which thankfully improved as 2015 drew to a close.
3. The stomach-churning feeling so many of us got at 10.01 pm on 7 May, when the exit polls announced the Conservatives would get the seats they needed to form a government and I would have to retire my Hell Yeah, I’m Voting Labour T-shirt.
4. Watching Labour’s Andy Burnham put up virtually no opposition to the Government’s proposed Investigatory Powers Bill, even when  Amnesty International (along with many other respected individuals and groups) have said the bill would effectively legalise mass surveillance put the UK government’s compliance with international law in disarray.
5. Watching David Cameron use the fear, uncertainty and anger generated by the awful Paris attacks to secure parliamentary approval for bombing Syria and stooping to a new personal low by labelling opponents of bombing ‘terrorist sympathisers‘.

Dismantling the Government’s Arguments in favour of the Investigatory Powers Bill

In my last post, I argued that if campaigners (including myself) are going to take on the Government over its plans for online surveillance and win, we need to dismantle the claims they are making about these powers being necessary for security and crime fighting.

Since then, I’ve done some further online research and had some interesting conversations on Twitter and at last night’s well-attended Open Rights Group Birmingham meetup. This has helped me to develop my thinking on how to frame the argument in a way that convinces politicians and the general public to sit-up and take notice of what’s at stake with the Investigatory Powers Bill.

Winning the argument over the Investigatory Powers Bill – key lines

Security risks created by the Investigatory Powers Bill

• The new requirement for tech firms to provide  unencrypted communications to the police or security services if requested through a warrant has been widely interpreted as an attempt to weaken encryption.
• Tim Cook, Apple’s Chief Executive, noted in a recent interview with The Telegraph : “If you halt or weaken encryption, the people that you hurt are not the folks that want to do bad things. It’s the good people. The other people know where to go.”
• As Tim Cook explains, “Any backdoor is a backdoor for everyone. Everybody wants to crack down on terrorists. Everybody wants to be secure. The question is how. Opening a backdoor can have very dire consequences.”
• Criminals and other bad people will still be able to access widely available open source encryption tools, while regular people who are less technically sophisticated will be left more vulnerable to data thefts and identity crime, notes security researcher. Paul Bernal, Internet privacy law researcher at the University of East Anglia, notes: “Savvy criminals already use encryption and software like Tor to hide their online activities, so storing web records won’t help combat this.“
• In addition to the weakening of encryption, the bill will create more opportunities for cybercrime. Requiring ISPs to store everyone’s Internet connection records for 12 months will create huge amounts of personal data, which will be highly attractive to criminals. How much more personal data could criminals could have stolen from TalkTalk, had the new collection system been in place? Timothy Brown, Executive Director of Security with Dell Software Group noted: “this only creates larger and more attractive targets for hackers and leaks.“
• The bill proposes granting the security services broad powers to hack computer systems. Doing so will leave critical infrastructure at risk, as the same vulnerabilities used by security services will be exploited by criminals. As Tim Cook  noted: “Any backdoor is a backdoor for everyone.”

Questionable security gains from expansion of surveillance powers

• The bill gives authorities permissions to collect bulk data straight from the public internet cables. From this data, the metadata – the who, what, where and how long rather than the full contents of a communication – will be analysed. Amnesty International, Liberty and the European Court consider this to be mass surveillance.
• The value of bulk collection has been questioned, most notably in the United States. in January 2014, the United States Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB – great acronym, by the way) ruled that the bulk phone records collection had not stopped terrorist attacks and had “limited value” in combatting terrorism more broadly.
• Researchers have also questioned whether this kind of blanket surveillance can ever be an effective of detecting serious crime. Commenting on the surveillance programmes introduced post 9/11 in the United States to search for terrorists, famed security researcher Bruce Schneier noted: “finding terrorism plots is not a problem that lends itself to data mining. It’s a needle-in-a-haystack problem, and throwing more hay on the pile doesn’t make that problem any easier.“
• In 2014, a report approved by the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), noted that resources that might prevent attacks are diverted to mass surveillance, leaving potentially dangerous persons free to act.

Damage to the UK economy

• Speculation over the Investigatory Powers Bill is already hurting business confidence, both within and outside the UK
• On Tuesday, Tim Cook, Chief Executive of Apple, spoke out against the bill, warning of the ‘very dire consequences’ of weakening encryption.
• John Shaw, Vice President of Product Management at Sophos security, has said: “if I was a software business, I would be very worried my customers would not buy my software, because [they] would be worried that there was a backdoor built into this software that would allow the UK to look into my software”.

Expense

• Internet service providers (ISP) have called into question the cost of implementing a key element of the Investigatory Powers Bill, the mandatory collection and retention of every citizen’s Internet Connection Records.
• The Home Office has budgeted for £175 million but this is only intended to cover the initial up-front equipments costs, not the ongoing cost of running the system.
• Matthew Hare, Chief Executive of ISP GigaClear said “the indiscriminate collection of mass data is going to have a massive cost”
• Asked about the feasibility of implementing a system of mass data collection, James Blessing, the chair of the Internet Service Providers’ Association (ISPA),  said ISPs would find it “very feasible – with an infinite budget”.

Human rights and international reputation

• Joseph Cannataci, the UN’s special rapporteur on privacy, said the draft Investigatory Powers Bill heralded a “golden age of surveillance” unlike any that had come before. He also said, “The snoopers’ charter in the UK is just a bit worse than scary, isn’t it,”
• The European Court of Justice has previously ruled against mass data retention, notably in the 2014 Digital Rights Ireland Challenge. In this case, the Court criticised the untargeted nature of the surveillance measure, noting the directive “applies even to persons for whom there is no evidence capable of suggesting that their conduct might have a link, even an indirect or remote one, with serious crime.”
• The Government’s approach, which enshrines and expands mass data retention, appears to run contrary to the European Court’s judgement and so would be subject to challenge.
• Human rights group Liberty has described the bill as “terrifying” and “an astonishing assault on all of our internet security“.
• Human rights group Amnesty International UK has described the bill as “mass surveillance by another name“, with high intrusive powers which “flies in the face of the UK’s international human rights legal obligations to protect peoples’ rights to privacy, freedom of expression, and others.“

Sources

Amnesty International UK, Mass Surveillance by another name, 6 November 2015 (accessed 12 November 2015)

Ars Technica UK, Snooper’s Charter: UK gov’t can demand backdoors, give prison sentences for disclosing them, 6 November 2015 (accessed 12 November 2015)

BoingBoing, UK law will allow secret backdoor orders for software, imprison you for disclosing them, 10 November 2015 (accessed 12 November 2015)

Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), Mass Surveillance Report, 26 January 2015 (accessed 12 November 2015)

EDRi, European Court overturns EU mass surveillance law, 8 April 2014 (accessed 12 November 2015)

IT Pro, Snooper’s Charter puts data at risk even with encryption, 4 November 2015 (accessed 13 November 2015)

Liberty, Investigatory Powers Bill: Spoiler Alert – this is terrifying, 4 November 2015 (accessed 12 November 2015

New Scientist, UK spying rules may drive criminals to use stronger encryption, 11 November 2015 (accessed 13 November 2015)

Schneier on Security, Data Mining for Terrorists, 9 March 2006 (accessed 12 November 2015)

The Guardian, Obama must finally end NSA phone record collection, says privacy board, 29 January 2015 (accessed 12 November 2015)

The Guardian, Broadband bills will have to increase to pay for snooper’s charter, MPs are warned, 11 November 2015 (accessed 12 November 2015)

The Telegraph, Apple’s Tim Cook declares the end of the PC and hints at new medical product, 10 November 2015 (accessed 12 Nov 2015)

To stop the Investigatory Powers Bill, campaigners will need to make a strong case for targeted, not mass surveillance

On Wednesday, after months of speculation and a flurry of off-the-record ministerial briefings and some pretty cringeworthy attempts at PR by GCHQ, the UK Government finally published its surveillance bill, which has been given the more innocuous title of the Investigatory Powers Bill.

The Guardian has produced a clear summary of the main points here. You can also check out BBC News for a less opinionated assessment.

Here’s a round-up (pun intended) of reaction to the Investigatory Powers Bill and how campaigners can  build a coalition to oppose the bill, but only if they take on the Government directly on the claims it makes on security and crime prevention.

An extended itemised phone bill or another step towards mass surveillance?

Not surprisingly, the Government’s assessment of the Investigatory Powers Bil was markedly different to that of privacy activists and human rights campaigners.

While Theresa May wants us  to  “try to think of the new powers [the requirement for all companies to keep a record of every citizen’s internet history for a year] as just an extended itemised phone bill”, Amnesty International UK were warning that the bill “would effectively legalise mass surveillance, which by definition inherently fails the test of proportionality required by international human rights laws that the UK government must adhere to.”

Liberty also performed strongly, promoting its 8 point Safe and Sound plan for targeted surveillance, which they say would keep us safe while respecting our privacy.

At Open Rights Group we punched above our weight, with Executive Director Jim Killock featured television and radio news programmes, including Radio 4’s World at One (jump to 15 min, 35 secs).

Where was Labour?

More surprisingly (and particularly disappointingly for me as a Labour member), there hasn’t been much evidence of the much talked-about ‘a new kind of politics’ from the Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn. I cringed as I read Andy Burnham’s response to May’s proposals, wishing Labour had at least chosen to express caution and reserve judgement:

“From what the Home Secretary has said today, it is clear to me that she and the Government have listened carefully to the concerns that were expressed about the draft Bill that was presented in the last Parliament … It would help the future conduct of this important public debate if the House sent out the unified message today that this is neither a snooper’s charter, nor a plan for mass surveillance.”

After Burnham’s initial comments on the bill in the House of Commons, Labour has seemingly made no effort to communicate to the public its position on the Government’s plans for new surveillance powers. In echoes of Nineteen  Eight-Four, there is no comment whatsoever on Labour’s Twitter account of the Investigatory Powers Bill. Given the serious nature of the comments  by Amnesty and Liberty, it’s disappointing Labour doesn’t feel the need to engage on the issue, at least not in public view.

Presenting a detailed operational case for targeted, not mass surveillance

As a member and activist with the Open Rights Group, you’d expect me to be suspicious of the Government’s plans for surveillance and to be instinctively sympathetic to the arguments Amnesty and Liberty have made about the risks the Investigatory Powers Bill poses to our individual rights and civil society. But I am not so naive as to believe that a majority of the public share my outlook. I voted for Ed Miliband to become Labour leader, after all.

From talking  to friends, family  and strangers about the work of the Open Rights Group, I know how easily arguments about the need for security, mixed in with frightening examples of horrible criminal activities, more often than not crush appeals to protect privacy and other human rights. If campaigners such as myself are to convince others to oppose the Government’s plans, we need to go beyond principled appeals to protect human rights.

In particular, campaigners need to show that a ‘collect it all’ approach, which puts all of us under surveillance, is not just legally and morally unacceptable, it does not actually keep us any safer.

So far the only person I’ve seen take on this argument is Peter Ludlow, former Professor of Philosophy at Northwestern University in the United States. Here’s a clip of him refuting the effectiveness of the NSA’s bulk data collection / mass surveillance approach. While Ludlow is talking about the United States, surely it is possible to do something similar here in the UK?

This clip comes from the excellent documentary, Killswitch: The Battle to Control the Internet, which I highly recommend you support.

While Ludlow is a passionate speaker, it’s a shame he doesn’t back up his point of view with hard evidence, at least not on the documentary itself.

Fortunately, campaigners do have evidence which they can draw on to help them make the case for targeted and not blanket surveillance. Back in  2013, for example, The Guardian reported on a Senate hearing in the United States which suggested the NSA had been systematically overstating the effectiveness of bulk collection of metadata.

More recently, in January 2014, the United States Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB – great acronym, by the way) ruled that that the bulk phone records collection had not stopped terrorist attacks and had “limited value” in combatting terrorism more broadly. The board also ruled the programme as illegal but, as an unnamed ministerial source said to The Sun last week, “It would be totally irresponsible of government to allow the legal system to dictate to us on matters as important as terrorism. (link goes to The Register, not The Sun)”.

While David Anderson, in his review of the UK’s existing investigatory powers, accepted the case for continued bulk data collection, he did at least say the Government would need to set out a ” detailed operational case” before any new surveillance powers could be introduced.

Given the lack of strong political opposition to the Government’s plans, coupled with the public’s valid concerns over security, it would be foolish to think at least a plausible will not be presented. If campaigners here in the UK are to successfully oppose the bill, they must take a similar approach and try, as far as possible, to present a detailed case for the kind of system Liberty presents in its Safe and Sound plan.

3 Reasons why you should be worried about the Investigatory Powers Bill

Last Wednesday I arranged for Jim Killock, Executive Director of the Open Rights Group, to give a talk to Open Rights Group Birmingham about the threat mass surveillance poses to our human rights and democratic society.

I was spurred on to organise the talk because of the UK government’s plans to introduce new surveillance legislation this autumn, known as the Investigatory Powers Bill, which will (amongst other things) give the government legal power to collect, analyse and retain in a gigantic database for 12 months everyone’s electronic communications interactions (phone, email, web history, text and WhatsApp messages, etc) regardless of whether you are suspected of committing a crime.

The surveillance debate – even boring by  C-SPAN standards?

Bulk data collection or bulk waste collection. Remind me what’s the difference again? Photo by colleen_elizabeth

Cleverly, the government has managed to couch the surveillance debate in language that is, to quote Jon Oliver, “even boring by C-Spann standards”. Talk of bulk data collection is more likely to evoke a service your local council might offer to help you get rid of an old mattress than a scene from The Lives of Others. And even if you can get your head around the opaque language being used, most of the attention in the debate focuses on the (rightly) emotive issues of terrorism and serious crime, leaving little time to consider the effect mass surveillance has on innocent citizens and the health of our democratic society.

In the interests of balancing out the surveillance debate ,  I’d like to borrow liberally from Jim’s talk to share with you 3 reasons why you should be worried about the government’s plans, especially if you think the Investigatory Powers Bill won’t affect you.

1. Mass surveillance undermines democratic accountability

Aerial photograph of the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. Are MPs in a position to hold GCHQ to account if they didn’t even know their communications were being eavesdropped? Photographer: GCHQ/Crown Copyright

Up until last week, MPs and members of the House of Lords believed their communications were protected by the so-called ‘Wilson Doctrine’ and so were not subject to the same eavesdropping as the rest of the general population.

Last week, the Investigatory Powers Tribunal announced these assurances had been:

“a political statement in a political context, encompassing the ambiguity that is sometimes to be found in political statements”

Furthermore, even if the statements of protection had been given in good faith, it is not technically possible to offer these assurances in an era of bulk data collection of the entire population’s electronic communications.

The tribunal’s ruling has, predictably, led to much soul searching by politicians of all stripes, with Labour’s Chris Bryant even managing to secure an emergency debate on the issue on Monday.

For me, the confusion caused by the ruling reveals the extent to which the surveillance agenda has managed to circumvent conventional democratic accountability.

Essentially, all of us, including the vast majority of elected politicians, are told to trust the authorities who tell us mass surveillance is necessary to protect national security and not to ask too many questions.

In this culture of secrecy, asking questions is deemed to be undermining the effectiveness of the authorities’ work and giving tacit cover or support for terrorists. Consequently, it becomes impossible to have an open, democratic debate about how we best go about balancing the security needs of our country with respect for our human rights.

We should be extremely wary of allowing the Investigatory Powers Bill to pass without having an open and democratic debate about the kind of country we want to live in and where the balance lies between the powers of the state and the rights of individual citizens.

2. The Investigatory Powers Bill will undermine the free press and civil society

3 police officers guarding Downing Street. Should the police have used surveillance legislation intended for anti-terrorism work to investigate the Plebgate scandal? Photo: Egghead06

While you may feel you don’t have much to worry about in terms of the authorities accessing your records, there are and will always be people who do need privacy protection.

Journalists need privacy protection. Imagine, for example, you are a journalist and you have received a tip off about Police wrongdoing. Would you be brave enough to investigate the allegation if you thought your communications could be accessed by the very same organisation?

This is precisely what happened in the case of the Plebgate scandal.The Metropolitan Police were able to use existing surveillance legislation known as Ripa, which was intended to be used in terrorism cases, to access the mobile phone records of The Sun’s political editor without first getting a warrant. By doing so, they were able to discover which officers inside the police had been talking to the journalist and take disciplinary action against them.

Whatever you think of The Sun and Rupert Murdoch’s News International operations, I hope you’ll agree that it’s not right that the UK’s surveillance legislation can be used to hamper the media. If that is what is possible under today’s legislation, we should think carefully before expanding the amount of data authorities can gather on all of us.

Even if you think that journalists by virtue of the job they do are fair game for the authorities, their sources still need to be protected. The Investigatory Powers Bill, by expanding data collection and giving the police and other authorities more rights of access, will make normal, everyday people more reluctant to come forward and report wrongdoing.

3. Mass surveillance is a golden opportunity for criminals

Will increased personal data collection and weakened encryption create more opportunities for criminals? Photo: Perspecsys Photos

Even if you are personally comfortable with the idea of the government passing more surveillance legislation without proper democratic debate and don’t care all that much about the rights of journalists and whistleblowers, chances are you wouldn’t be too keen about criminals getting hold of your personal information.

By obliging Internet Service Providers and other communications companies to collect greater amounts of personal data and store it for longer periods of time, the government risks creating more tempting opportunities for criminals to steal our data and use it to facilitate a range of crimes.

As well as increasing the total amount of personal information for criminals to target, government efforts to weaken encryption will make it easier for criminals to break into that data. While the government may wish to believe it can demand a special key or ‘backdoor’ to unlock encrypted that only it can use, the reality is criminals will discover this vulnerability and, in so doing, undermine the encryption that not only protects our privacy but is essential for online banking and secure e-commerce payments.

Sign Up and Make Open Rights Group Birmingham a Reality

On Saturday, I wrote a post about the positive impact digital technology and the open internet has had on my life and why this has motivated me to set-up an Open Rights Group in my home city of Birmingham to campaign against threats to our digital rights and build support for a digital society that works for the many, not the few.

I’m pleased to say I’ve had a positive response to the post so and it appears there are quite a few people in Birmingham who are interested in helping make an Open Rights Birmingham a genuine thing.

Sign up to help make Open Rights Group happen

Now, the next step is to arrange an Open Rights Group Birmingham meet-up. This will provide a chance for people who are interested in digital rights to get to know each other and decide on what our next steps should be in terms of raising awareness of digital rights.

To help with organising the meet-up, I’ve put together a simple Google Form to capture expressions of interest in helping develop an Open Rights Group in Birmingham. I’d be grateful if you could fill it in so that I can get an idea of who would is able to help.

Thanks again for supporting Open Rights Group Birmingham.

(P.S. I’m aware of the irony of using a Google Form to organise a digital rights group but I think it just adds a nice post-modern layer to our efforts to protect and promote our rights in a digital age.)

Why Digital Rights Matter – Open Rights Group’s Vision for an Open Digital Society

The society we want to see

As society goes digital we wish to preserve its openness. We want a society built on laws, free from disproportionate, unaccountable surveillance and censorship. We want a society in which information flows more freely. We want a state that is transparent and accountable, where the public’s rights are acknowledged and upheld.

We want a world where we each control the data our digital lives create, deciding who can use it and how. We want the public to fully understand their digital rights, and be equipped to be creative and free individuals. We stand for fit-for-purpose digital copyright regimes that promote free expression and diverse participation in culture.

We believe people have the right to control their technology, and oppose the use of technology to control people.

Find out more by visiting the Open Rights Group website.

Why I’m Setting up an Open Rights Group in Birmingham

Next month, it’ll be five years since I left the weird and wonderful world of local government. In the years that have followed, I have explored different career paths, developed new skills, worked for a range of organisations and as a freelancer, moved from London to Birmingham and got married.

Why digital rights matter to me – a personal perspective

With the exception of getting married, what’s tied all these activities together and made experimentation possible has been digital technology and the open internet. Digital technology and the open internet has enabled me to discover new and interesting ideas beyond the mainstream media. It has given me the tools to express myself and develop greater confidence in my own thinking and outlook. Social media, particularly Twitter, has allowed me to connect with, learn from and partner with a wider range of people and organisations both for work purposes as well as independent pursuits such as Roots of Reggae and Bournville Social Media Surgery. And very significantly, throughout the last five years digital technology and the internet has been instrumental to me earning a living and developing my new career in communications.

While the circumstances of my initial career change in 2010 have played a role in deepening my relationship and sense of connection with all things digital, I also know from talking to friends, family members and colleagues that I am not alone. It’s become a platitude to say we now live in a digital world but when we look around us, it is hard to ignore the scale of social, economic and political changes that can be attributed, at least in part, to digital technology.

Bringing digital rights into the mainstream

Given the transformative effect digital technology is having on us as individuals and our society, I believe we need to find a way of bringing discussions and decision-making about digital technology into the civic and political mainstream.

By working hard to put across a persuasive case for being both pro-digital and pro-human rights I believe we can help decision-makers and people in positions of influence to realise the decisions we take in relation to digital technology and the internet have far reaching implications for our rights as citizens and the society we live in.

Moving from reactive campaigning to a positive vision of a digital society

Currently, a lot of attention has been given to the government’s revival of the so-called Snoopers’ Charter and the implications for privacy and freedom of expression arising from mass surveillance. Public scrutiny has also been applied to the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), which is being negotiated in secret between the EU and the USA, and which potentially brings intrusive measures associated with copyright policy. While these high profile cases provide an opportunity to rally supporters and often see off the worst aspects of different proposals, we must do more than simply respond to threats when they arise, we need to come together and develop a movement that is capable to putting across a convincing, positive vision for a society that is both pro-digital and pro-human rights.

Introducing the Open Rights Group

After quite a lot of research and enquiry as to how people around the world have approached the issue of ‘digital rights’, I came across the UK-based Open Rights Group, whose vision of a digital society I share:

As society goes digital we wish to preserve its openness. We want a society built on laws, free from disproportionate, unaccountable surveillance and censorship. We want a society in which information flows more freely. We want a state that is transparent and accountable, where the public’s rights are acknowledged and upheld.

We want a world where we each control the data our digital lives create, deciding who can use it and how. We want the public to fully understand their digital rights, and be equipped to be creative and free individuals. We stand for fit-for-purpose digital copyright regimes that promote free expression and diverse participation in culture.

We believe people have the right to control their technology, and oppose the use of technology to control people.

Time to  build a grassroots campaign for digital rights

Following last month’s general election win for the Conservatives, which has resulted in the reintroduction of the Snoopers’ Charter in the Queen’s Speech, I decided I had to become more active on promoting digital rights. It was at this time that I became a paid up member of the Open Rights Group.

Now that I am a member of the Open Rights Group, I want to help more people become aware of the importance of digital rights and maintaining an open digital society that works for the many, not the few. To achieve this goal, I am in the process of setting up a local Birmingham Open Rights Group. The idea is to bring like-minded people together, both in person as well as online, and for us to work together to ensure digital rights become embedded into the everyday fabric of our society.

I’ve already started to reach out to friends and colleagues in Birmingham who I think might be interested in supporting the Open Rights Group. The next step will be organising an initial meet-up. This will help me to determine the current level of interest in digital rights in Birmingham (does anyone really care?) and for members of the group to decide on what the next steps should be. Look out for more information shortly about our first meet-up.

Would you like to help  set up an Open Rights Group in Birmingham?

Would you like to help set up an Open Rights Group in Birmingham? If so, please get in touch with me and we can get the ball rolling. I would be extremely grateful for any help you can provide – no matter how much or how little.