UK Parliament Approves Expansive New Surveillance Powers

On the latest episode of Aggressive Progressives Jimmy Dore and Steve Oh discuss a new bill passed by the UK Parliament which dramatically expands the surveillance state.

WIKIPEDIA: Draft Communications Data Bill »

GCHQ Faces Legal Challenge in European Court over Online Privacy

THE GUARDIAN: Campaigners accuse British spy agency of breaching privacy of millions in UK and Europe via online surveillance

The UK spy agency GCHQ is facing a legal challenge in the European courts over claims its mass online surveillance programmes have breached the privacy of tens of millions of people across the UK and Europe.

Three campaign groups – Big Brother Watch, the Open Rights Group and English PEN – together with the German internet activist Constanze Kurz have filed papers at the European court of human rights alleging that the collection of vast amounts of data, including the content of emails and social media messages, by UK spy agencies is illegal.

The move follows revelations by the US whistleblower Edward Snowden that GCHQ has the capacity to collect more than 21 petabytes of data a day – equivalent to sending all the information in all the books in the British Library 192 times every 24 hours.

Daniel Carey, solicitor at Deighton Pierce Glynn, which is taking the case, said: "We are asking the court to declare that unrestrained surveillance of much of Europe's internet communications by the UK government, and the outdated regulatory system that has permitted this, breach our rights to privacy." » | Matthew Taylor and Nick Hopkins | Thursday, October 03, 2013

Beware Spyware: Wikileaks Exposes Surveillance Industry Trackers

A huge new revelation from Wikileaks this hour has exposed a sweeping surveillance industry, which has been developing spyware for governments to track and control their citizens. RT was among the very few media outlets given access to the documents prior to their release.

Germany Ends Spy Pact with US and UK after Snowden

BBC: Germany has cancelled a Cold War-era pact with the US and Britain in response to revelations about electronic surveillance operations.

Details of snooping programmes involving the transatlantic allies have been leaked to the media by former US intelligence analyst Edward Snowden.

The revelations have sparked widespread outrage in Germany, where elections are due next month.

The agreement dates from 1968-9, and its cancellation is largely symbolic.

German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said in a statement: "The cancellation of the administrative agreements, which we have pushed for in recent weeks, is a necessary and proper consequence of the recent debate about protecting personal privacy."

Germans' experience of mass surveillance under the Communist and Nazi dictatorships makes them particularly sensitive to perceived infringements of personal privacy, and the country has strong data protection laws.

The agreement cancelled on Friday gave the Western countries which had troops stationed in West Germany - the US, Britain and France - the right to request surveillance operations to protect those forces. » | Friday, August 02, 2013

Wire Transfer: NSA Paid $150 Mlnimum to GCHQ to Spy on UK Citizens

Snowden's leaks continue to span the Atlantic. The latest revelations published by the Guardian show not only was Britain's Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) spying extensively on UK citizens - but it was receiving funds from Washington to do so. RT's Polly Boiko takes a closer look at the US role in it.

British CCTV-mania Shatters Records

Britain's addiction to surveillance is shattering records - with it estimated that there is now one camera for every 11 people. Privacy groups are furious - saying George Orwell's '1984' was never intended to be an instruction manual.

David Cameron: Lib Dems Were Fully Aware of 'Snooping' Plans

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: David Cameron has hit back against Liberal Democrat critics of the new internet “snooping” laws, claiming Nick Clegg and Chris Huhne approved the controversial plans.

In a put-down to his Coalition partners, the Prime Minister said it was important to “remember” that some of the most senior Liberal Democrats in Government waived [sic] through the proposals.

Ministers insist the new laws will simply widen the current scope of powers to the internet, as police and intelligence agencies are already allowed to monitor phones, letters and emails. They dispute the idea that monitoring voice calls and other communications over the internet amounts to snooping.

But prominent Liberal Democrats have expressed outrage that the changes will allow the police to have greater power to track online communications, such as Facebook and Skype.

Last week, Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister, intervened to say he would block any intrusive new powers following a series of reports on the forthcoming legislation.

Tim Farron, the president of the Liberal Democrats, has even said the party is prepared to “kill” the plans, if the laws pose a “threat to a free and liberal society”. » | Rowena Mason, Political Correspondent | Tuesday, April 10, 2012

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Nick Clegg denies endorsing Coalition's 'snooping' plans: The Coalition has been shaken by a row as Nick Clegg denies claims by David Cameron that he had signed up to controversial internet surveillance plans. » | Rowena Mason, Political Correspondent | Tuesday, April 10, 2012

The UK 'Snooping' Plan: Security vs. Privacy
Is the UK's new online surveillance plan an essential security tool or an unnecessary breach of personal freedoms?

Related »

Government Retreats on Digital 'Big Brother' Plan
THE INDEPENDENT: Home Secretary accused of mishandling surveillance proposals

Plans to allow the authorities to monitor the online activity of every person in Britain were pushed back last night after being condemned by MPs of all parties.

The Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, announced that the contentious measures would be published only in draft form and would be subject to widespread consultation – concessions that could delay the proposals for at least a year. In a letter to Mr Clegg published in The Independent today, 17 Liberal Democrat MPs welcomed his intervention but warned him their support could not be taken for granted on the issue.

A storm erupted this week after it emerged that legislation to allow the police, intelligence services, councils and other public bodies to obtain details of messages sent via Skype and social networks would be included in the Queen's Speech.

The disclosure provoked anger among Tory and Liberal Democrat MPs alike, who warned that the proposals contradicted the parties' opposition to a similar Labour scheme – and were not included in the Coalition Agreement. There have also been recriminations within the Coalition as Liberal Democrats – understood to have been backed by some Tory ministers – accused Theresa May, the Home Secretary, of mishandling the issue. » | Nigel Morris | Wednesday, April 04, 2012

Related material here and here

Nick Clegg Promises Plans to Snoop on Emails Will Get 'Highest Possible Safeguards'
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Plans to spy on every email and phone call will be subject to "the highest possible safeguards" to stop them becoming Orwellian, Nick Clegg has said.

The Deputy Prime Minister attempted to defend the Government’s new "snooping" laws, as he faces pressure from his own party and privacy campaigners over whether they constitute a breach of civil liberties.

The plans will allow police and intelligence officers to monitor who someone is in contact with and the websites they visit, although the content of communications will not be accessed.

Asked how he would protect privacy, Mr Clegg suggested the Government was open to amending its “draft” proposals, adding that "anything in this area is highly sensitive".

He claimed there would be no central Government database, which would have a "real Orwellian air". He also promised to make sure "hard-fought civil liberties" are properly protected.

"We're prepared to look at any safeguards that make sure people feel comfortable these are not the draconian proposals they have been portrayed as being," he told the BBC's World at One programme. » | Tuesday, April 03, 2012




My comment:

Clegg, you're a bloody wimp! If you expect intelligent people to believe this crap, you're deluded.

It's high time you and your cohorts found your/their gonads. What is now happening is typical of what happens when there is weak leadership.

Find your balls and go after the people who are perpetrating these crimes. You know as well as we all do just who those people are. Just in case you don't, I'll tell you: It's the Muslims, stupid!

If your intention is to create harmony between the indigenous population and the Muslim immigrants, you're going the wrong way about it. This law, robbing as it will the indigenous people of their liberty, will do nothing but breed even more Islamophobia.

Find the balls you were born with and go after the real criminals! Don't punish the vast majority of innocent people for the misdeeds of the few. What justice is there in that?

Little wonder that the majority of people now hold politicians in such contempt. Contempt is all you deserve. You are bringing shame on yourselves, and shame on your country. Furthermore, you are throwing away all that was prized about these fine British Isles. You disgust me, and I feel sure you disgust most decent people. Nick Clegg, David Cameron, Theresa May et al, go hang your heads in shame! – © Mark

This comment, albeit amended, appears here

Related / Verwandt »

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Taxpayers must foot £200 million bill to have their emails snooped on: Taxpayers will have to pay £200 million a year so police and security agencies can spy on their every email and phone call. » | Tom Whitehead | Security Editor | Tuesday, April 03, 2012

Web Monitoring Will Lead to Discrimination and Blackmail
THE GUARDIAN: It seems whoever is in government, grandiose ambitions of the security state remain – and the potential for harm is great

When the Liberals and Conservatives delivered the first coalition government since the war, they bound themselves together in the language of civil liberties.

Early signs were encouraging: Labour's controversial ID card scheme was scrapped and the enticingly titled protection of freedoms bill was conceived. But the romance was rocky. Unsafe and unfair control orders remained (albeit perfumed as terrorism prevention and investigation measures) and seductive promises of extradition reform failed to materialise.

Now the honeymoon appears well and truly over, thanks no doubt to some "spooky" extramarital intervention. Hot on the heels of the secret justice green paper – which seeks to shut claimants out of their own cases against the state to defend the "public interest" – comes a major expansion of powers to monitor the phone calls, emails and website visits of every person in the UK.

Next month's Queen's speech is expected to include legislation instructing internet service providers to install hardware that would give the government's electronic listening agency, GCHQ, increased access to communications data.

The ask is greedier than ever before, and the proposed data collection vast. Everyone will be affected, irrespective of any suspicion, just in case the information might prove useful one day. This is the blanket surveillance of an entire population. Such industrial-scale snooping will inevitably lead to discrimination. Remember ethnic minorities' experience of stop-and-search without suspicion? There will be nothing to prevent the creation of "mining databases": fishing expeditions based on certain keywords linked solely to clumsy stereotypes rather than genuine and reasonable suspicion of individual wrongdoing. » | Isabella Sankey | Tuesday, April 03, 2012

Related »

Terrorism Debate: Are GCHQ Set to Spy on You?
THE SUN: A SNOOPER’S Charter is to be proposed by the Government next month. Under the new law all conversations over the internet, including social networking sites and Skype, plus emails will be recorded.

Police and security services will be able to demand details of who is having the conversation and what time it takes place, but will need a court order to listen to or read the content.

Opponents say it will bring the same kind of surveillance to the UK which takes place in China and Iran, while supporters say it’s a tool in the fight against terrorism.

Here Home Secretary Theresa May and former Shadow Home Secretary David Davis set out opposing views. » | Tuesday, April 03, 2012

THE GUARDIAN: Theresa May defends email surveillance plans: Home secretary says extension of powers for security services to monitor web communications is vital to catch criminals » | Rajeev Syal, Josh Hallyday and Haroon Siddique | Tuesday, April 03, 2012

Related »

Digital Surveillance: What My Phone Records Say about Me
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Granting police and security agencies immediate access to email, web and phone communications data allows them to paint a detailed portrait of a life.

The Coalition government's proposals to extend surveillance powers would vastly expand the amount of data that communications companies must keep on record.

Phone companies are already required to hold information for up to twelve months; in the future this information - as well as similar information collected form email and social networking sites - could be accessed in real time, and without a warrant.

I accessed my own data from my mobile phone company Vodafone, using data protection laws, to demonstrate what information is already stored and how this data already creates a revealing profile of the individual.

Use the graphic above to browse the location data logged by Vodafone every time my phone made a connection with the phone masts - when I made a call, received or sent a text message, or checked my emails.

Further data - recording what I was using the phone for in each instance, and the numbers I dialled - was also released.

Together this data creates a very effective profile of my life: who I called, where I worked, where I lived and what I got up to. » | Cal Flyn, interactive graphic by Dan Palmer and Mark Oliver | Tuesday, April 03, 2012

My comment:

I am sure I speak for many when I say that I am so disappointed in this government, in this establishment, in this country.

I was raised to believe that Great Britain was a land of fairness and fair play. Events in recent years have disabused me of the fairytale and myths my parents brought me up to believe in. I was also raised to believe that Conservative governments would always bring a little sanity back into public life where Labour had fallen short. This is another myth that I have been disabused of. It is now clear that one cannot put a cigarette paper between any of the main parties. They are out for themselves, and they are almost to a man, without courage and conviction.

To be fair to my parents, people years ago had to fight tooth and nail for their liberty, witness the Second World War. And they did so without as much as complaining. To them, the good of the country and liberty for future generations was their paramount concern.

It used to be the case that the people who caused the problems would be targeted for punishment. It would have been unthinkable for good, honest, decent folk to have their privacy invaded and attacked for the misdeeds of the few. Alas such noble concepts have gone by the board. Now, everyone – young and old, innocent and guilty – is the target of milquetoast politicians.

Now, politicians hide behind political correctness. In truth, they lack the courage to target the guilty, especially when those that are guilty belong to another culture, another religion. They have allowed the indigenous population to be swamped by an alien culture without as much as seeking the approval of the electorate. As a result, they have got themselves into difficulties which they do not know how to extricate themselves from. They are too craven to target the people who endanger our freedoms, so make good, decent people pay for their cravenness instead, by imposing unjust legislation upon them.

They forget – if they ever knew – that good, decent, courageous people fought for our liberties in previous wars. They are now willing to extend the arm of government straight into our private lives and personal affairs.

To say that if one has nothing to hide, one has nothing to fear is ridiculous. First of all, we are entitled in a free democracy to have a modicum of privacy. Even the innocent don't usually want everything about them and their lives to be known by everyone else. A little bit of anonymity makes life all the pleasanter for many people.

I can only urge David Cameron and his cabinet to re-think this awful piece of legislation. Too much will be lost if it is passed. This is a pernicious, malevolent bill. And it is so open to abuse. If the objective is to keep us safe, another, less-objectionable way must be found. To target the many for the crimes of the few is a step too far. It also defies the spirit of the British. This is NOT East Germany, this is NOT Iran, this is NOT China. This IS Great Britain. Let those that govern us not forget that. – © Mark

This comment also appears here

Editorial: Breaking a Promise on Surveillance
THE NEW YORK TIMES: It is just a technical matter, the Obama administration says: We just need to make a slight change in a law to make clear that we have the right to see the names of anyone’s e-mail correspondents and their Web browsing history without the messy complication of asking a judge for permission.

It is far more than a technical change. The administration’s request, reported Thursday in The Washington Post, is an unnecessary and disappointing step backward toward more intrusive surveillance from a president who promised something very different during the 2008 campaign. …



… President Obama campaigned for office on an explicit promise to rein in these abuses. “There is no reason we cannot fight terrorism while maintaining our civil liberties,” his campaign wrote in a 2008 position paper. “As president, Barack Obama would revisit the Patriot Act to ensure that there is real and robust oversight of tools like National Security Letters, sneak-and-peek searches, and the use of the material witness provision.”

Where is the “robust oversight” that voters were promised? Earlier this year, the administration successfully pushed for crucial provisions of the Patriot Act to be renewed for another year without changing a word. Voters had every right to expect the president would roll back authority that had been clearly abused, like national security letters. But instead of implementing reasonable civil liberties protections, like taking requests for e-mail surveillance before a judge, the administration is proposing changes to the law that would allow huge numbers of new electronic communications to be examined with no judicial oversight.

Democrats in Congress can remind Mr. Obama of his campaign promises by refusing this request. Read it all here >>> | Thursday, July 29, 2010

Birmingham Stops Camera Surveillance in Muslim Areas
THE GUARDIAN: Project halted after Guardian exposed use of 200-plus cameras in predominantly Muslim areas for counterterrorism

A project to spy on two Muslim areas in Birmingham using more than 200 CCTV cameras has been dramatically halted after an investigation by the Guardian revealed it was a counterterrorism initiative.

Bags are being placed over the cameras, recently installed in the neighbourhoods of Washwood Heath and Sparkbrook, to reassure the community their movements are not being monitored while a "full and in-depth consultation" takes place.

In a joint statement last night, West Midlands police and Birmingham city council announced the cameras would not be turned on. They apologised for not being "more explicit" about the funding arrangements of the project, which stipulated they should be used to combat terrorism, a mistake they conceded may have "undermined public confidence".

But officials insisted the £3m project would go ahead following a retrospective public consultation, arguing the cameras would help reduce crime. >>> Paul Lewis | Thursday, June 17, 2010

Fillon double le budget dédié à la vidéosurveillance
LE FIGARO: Le premier ministre a présenté vendredi un plan de prévention de la délinquance et d'aide aux victimes consistant en un renforcement de mesures existantes.

François Fillon, le premier ministre de la France. Photo : Google Images
C'est la conséquence de l'avertissement lancé par Nicolas Sarkozy fin mai, et répété en septembre, après l'annonce d'une baisse des résultats dans le cadre de la lutte contre la délinquance. François Fillon a présenté vendredi à l'issue d'un comité interministériel qu'il a tenu à Villeneuve-la-Garenne, dans les Hauts-de-Seine, un plan dit de prévention de la délinquance et d'aide aux victimes. Plan constitué principalement d'un renforcement de dispositifs déjà existants. François Fillon a d'ailleurs voulu se justifier sur ce sujet en expliquant : «La prévention de la délinquance, c'est une action de long terme (...) c'est une action qui ne se satisfait pas de coups d'éclat». >>> J.B. (lefigaro.fr) Avec AFP et AP | Vendredi 02 Octobre 2009

The Most Spied Upon People in Europe
BBC: Germany's highest court has ruled that spying on personal computers violates privacy, but governments across Europe are under pressure to help their security services fight terrorism and organised crime.

Here, BBC reporters give a snapshot of the extent of surveillance across Europe. The Most Spied Upon People in Europe >>>

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)