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posted by n1 on Sunday May 07 2017, @08:03AM   Printer-friendly
from the british-values dept.

The BBC has a story about government plant to introduce a new law to allow real-time snooping of British Internet users' activity.

The law would demand a very minimal level of judicial oversight (a judge appointed by the Prime Minister) and the approval of politicians (secretaries of state) so the protection against politically-motivated abuse is effectively nil.

Furthermore, the law will effectively require that backdoors be built into encryption protocols to permit the reading of data on demand.

The news has not been widely publicised by the government, and most people are occupied with Brexit at the moment, so it has not been very well noticed.


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 07 2017, @04:33PM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 07 2017, @04:33PM (#505885)

    To provide and maintain the capability to disclose, where practicable, the content of
    communications or secondary data in an intelligible form and to remove electronic protection
    applied by or on behalf of the telecommunications operator to the communications or data, or to
    permit the person to whom the warrant is addressed to remove such electronic protection.

    Anyone know what a 'telecommunications operator' is? Because I'd be surprised if it meant telecommunications operator.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 07 2017, @07:43PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 07 2017, @07:43PM (#505956)

    Anyone know what a 'telecommunications operator' is? Because I'd be surprised if it meant telecommunications operator.

    From the relevant Act..Investigatory Powers Act 2016 [legislation.gov.uk], Part9, Chapter 2, Section 10(a)

    (10) “Telecommunications operator” means a person who—

    • (a) offers or provides a telecommunications service to persons in the
      United Kingdom, or
    • (b) controls or provides a telecommunication system which is (wholly or
      partly)—
      • (i) in the United Kingdom, or
      • (ii) controlled from the United Kingdom.

    And the document has legal definitions of 'telecommunications service' and 'telecommunication system' for you to peruse..

    (Good luck trying to force foreign entities in nominally 'hostile' countries e.g. Yandex into complying with Part9, Section 10(a) there...)

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 07 2017, @08:13PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 07 2017, @08:13PM (#505969)

      Thanks for finding that for my lazy self, for anyone else wondering here's the definition of a Telecommunication system, this looks like it does cover stuff like Signal.

      “Telecommunication system” means a system (including the apparatus comprised in it) that exists (whether wholly or partly in the United Kingdom or elsewhere) for the purpose of facilitating the transmission of communications by any means involving the use of electrical or electromagnetic energy.

      From http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2016/25/section/261/enacted [legislation.gov.uk]

      NB: I may well have mucked up and found the wrong definition since IANAL.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 07 2017, @08:29PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 07 2017, @08:29PM (#505972)

        ..NB: I may well have mucked up and found the wrong definition since IANAL.

        Heh, as you can tell from the document, the intention is to make the whole process as opaque as possible to anyone who isn't a Lawyer...