Be glad you're not in the U.K.

Fri Jul 19 01:07:43 UTC 2002

And coming soon to the US!

>BBC News Online:  Sci/Tech
>Wednesday, 17 July, 2002, 09:15 GMT 10:15 UK
>Switch on for state snooping
>
>Police forces want to plug in to lots of networks
>
> >From August net service providers in the UK will be obliged to carry out
>surveillance of some customers' web habits on behalf of the police.
>Controversial laws passed in 2000 oblige large communications companies
>to install technology that allows one in 10,000 of their customers to be
>watched.
>
>The information gathered about what people look at on the web, the
>content of e-mail messages and their phone conversations will be passed
>to the police or a government monitoring station.
>
>The demands have been criticised by experts who say the law conflicts
>with basic guarantees of privacy and that the government is not doing
>enough to help pay for the installation of the surveillance systems.
>
>Data hoover
>
>The controversial Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act was passed in
>October 2000 and gave law enforcement agencies sweeping powers to snoop
>on the electronic lives of citizens.
>
>" It's the internet equivalent of a telephone tap "
>Roland Perry, Linx
>
>The Act demands that organisations it dubs Communication Service
>Providers (CSP) - broadly anyone that helps people keep in touch via the
>web, fax machine or phone - install technology that can automatically
>monitor what many of their customers are doing.
>
>It also demands that service providers start monitoring a customer
>within 24 hours of being told that the police or other investigation
>agencies want to snoop on them.
>
>The information collected must also be passed on electronically to the
>agency which asked for the snooping to start.
>
>A spokesman for the Home Office said 1 August was the day on which the
>new surveillance regime would start, even though the technology to do
>the watching are yet to be installed.
>
>He said only law enforcement agencies would have the power to ask for
>the surveillance to start.
>
>Police would have to get a warrant from the Home Office before they
>could ask for surveillance to start, he said, and it would only be used
>to gather evidence about serious crimes.
>
>Data delivery
>
>Roland Perry, public policy director for the London Internet Exchange
>which interconnects the networks of net service companies, said the
>government was still working out how best to put the surveillance
>systems in place.
>
>"It's a very long-term project," he said. "The whole thing will be done
>on a one-to-one basis with the individual companies concerned."
>
>" Agencies have to make a judgement whether it's worth making a request
>if it costs a few hundred pounds to do it "
>
>Ian Brown, Foundation for Information Policy Research
>
>The government is also currently working out what types of information
>it wants from CSPs and how it will be delivered.
>
>"In theory, an interception capability would deliver all the data," said
>Mr Perry. "It's the internet equivalent of a telephone tap."
>
>The government is hoping that its work on automatic surveillance will
>become a European standard and be widely adopted.
>
>Costly communication
>
>Service providers have asked for help to buy the equipment needed to set
>up the permanent interception capability.
>
>"The Home Office has said it would contribute £20m to this but the net
>industry has said it will cost a lot more than that," said Ian Brown,
>director of the Foundation for Information Policy Research.
>
>The Internet Service Providers Association has warned about the
>potentially huge costs of installing surveillance equipment to meet the
>demands of the RIP Act and the recently passed Anti-Terrorism, Crime and
>Security Act.
>
>A spokesman for the organisation said it was still seeking clarification
>over the types of data its members were supposed to be catching, how
>long it had to be stored for and who would pay for the storage.
>
>Mr Brown said one of the few safeguards on the snooping system was the
>fact that the agencies asking for the surveillance to be carried out
>will be charged to use it.
>
>"This means agencies have to make a
>judgement whether it's worth making a request if it costs a few hundred
>pounds to do it," said Mr Brown.
>
>
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