In message <[log in to unmask]>, at
20:00:10 on Wed, 13 Aug 2008, Ibrahim Hassan <[log in to unmask]> writes
>How does this rate as a completely inaccurate story:
>
>http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7557963.stm
>
>"Plans to give local councils and other public bodies the power to monitor
>e-mail and internet traffic have been branded a "snoopers' charter"."
>
>Council's have had these powers since January 2004. The story is really
>about implementing new data retention laws but as usual the "anti terror
>legislation" gets it in the neck.
The main piece of reportage creep is the way RIPA is now constantly
referred to as "anti-terrorism" legislation - which isn't true. It's
entirely pre 9/11 and while it can obviously be used to investigate
terrorism that wasn't the primary driver for bringing it in (the Human
Rights Act was).
It's about disclosure[1] of what people have (you can't disclose what
you don't have...), and Data Retention (whether voluntary or compulsory)
is the mechanism by which "more" is available to be disclosed.
The Home Office, of course, was the leading advocate for the Data
Retention Directive, and most of the concepts are copied straight from
the UK's voluntary scheme. So when they say:
"The Home Office says the new laws are needed to implement a
European Directive"
It's true, but not an imposition or an unwelcome surprise - it's
something they lobbied hard for.
Meanwhile:
" - meaning the data will be available to investigators across
Europe."
... is a classic non-sequitur, because all the Directive does is cause
data to be retained; disclosure (within the EU or otherwise) is handled
by separate national laws; and the Directive points out that member
states should only introduce DP & ECHR compliant disclosure procedures.
[1] Although most of the recent stories about "council snoopers" are
actually about its regulation of surveillance, which is entirely
disjoint to Comms Data (just happens to be in the same Act).
--
Roland Perry
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