More Surveillance Soon

Home Secretary Theresa May announced the raising UK's terror threat level from "substantial" to "severe" in response to conflicts in Iraq and Syria. This was followed by a press conference where the prime minister, David Cameron, who said that the said Islamic State extremists are attempting to establish a Islamic state. This he believes represents a "greater and deeper threat to our security than we have known before". In order to do this he is ready to introduce emergency legislation.

Back in July the government rushed through a act of parliament called the Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Act 2014 using emergency procedures without any real debate or public consultation. This was forced through in response to concerns that the telecommunications companies would start deleting data held under the European Unions Data Retention Regulations of 2009 due to Court of Justice of the European Union ruling which said that keeping data on individuals was unlawful as it was interference with the fundamental rights of individuals to a private life. The 2014 act, introduced in July, increased the data collected under the Data Retention Regulations and the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000, the original snoopers charter. 

The table below gives an idea of the changes that have been made to the interception of communications in the UK from the introduction of  European Unions Data Retention Regulations of 2009 and the purposed changes that the Government have talked about in the past which we could see being implemented soon.

European Unions Data Retention Regulations of 2009

Covers - Phone Companies, ISPs, Mobile Phone Communications, Internet Usage, Email usage within the UK Data Stored - source and destination of communication, time and date, type of communication and equipment type. Length time retained - 12 months Data Available to - Security Services, Police, HM Customs and Revenue with limited data available to other national and local government agencies.

Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Act 2014

Covers - Phone Companies, ISPs, Mobile Phone Communications, Internet Usage, Email usage (including webmail) within the UK and requires organisations outside the UK providing the same sort of services to keep the same data on UK citizens communications. Data Stored - source and destination of communication, time and date, type of communication and equipment type. Length time retained - 12 months Data Available to - Security Services, Police, HM Customs and Revenue with limited data available to other national and local government agencies.

Possible New Emergency Powers Act

Covers - Postal Services, Phone Companies, ISPs, Mobile Phone Communications, Internet Usage, Email usage (including webmail) within the UK and requires organisations outside the UK providing the same sort of services to keep the same data on UK citizens communications. Data Stored - source and destination of communication, time and date, type of communication, equipment type, location of mobile devices, details of messages sent on social media, voice calls sent over the internet, web browsing history, file transfers details, usage of messaging services, online gaming history etc. Length time retained - 12 months Data Available to - Security Services, Police, HM Customs and Revenue with limited data available to other national and local government agencies.

Any purposed legislation will  see major increases to the amount of data being collected on it. Already when moving from the 2009 legislation to the 2014  legislation we saw the government increasing the Surveillance Sate while claiming ot was just trying to give itself the same powers as it had before. 

We know from the press that the Home Secretary, Theresa May, wants more power to snoop on the British public and she will use any excuse to get it. In the newspapers of the past she has called on greater internet powers to control gangs, stop paedophiles, serious crime, terrorists etc. In fact she will use anything that will get her support despite in every major poll the public disagreeing with her increasing her powers to create a Big Brother State. With the prime minister, David Cameron,in the mood he is in and willing to use emergency powers she just might get what she wants at last.

I believe that the government is interfering more and more in our private lives and has the power to watch us like it has never done before in minute detail, knowing where we are, who we are talking to and what we are talking about. This is a dangerous shift that affects our human rights and our democracy unless measures are put in place to make it transparent in the courts of law and require bodies outside of government to oversee requests of information. It is only at this point that should data be made available, and not at the say of some lowly official with the police or the government.

The fact is that groups of people that Theresa May wants to monitor will find ways around the any measures the government puts in place, just as spies have done for countless centuries, to carry on exchanging information. Yes we might pick up a few people along the way but the people the government are really after will still get away and they will be has hidden from the authorities as they are now. If you are determined enough you will find a way to get round such data collection systems.  

What we are risking with moves like this are ever increasing state control through self censorship both in the press and of the individual. There are already controls in the UK that stops us seeing some websites how long before these powers are also increased, as they have been in other counties like Russia who are implementing measures to control the internet and other forms communications. Before long the basic principle of the Internet being a free place will be just a pipe dream of its creator and everything we do in our lives will be recorded.