Science & Technology

New UK law enables mass online surveillance

By T.K. Randall
November 22, 2016

Image: Backlit Keyboard
Credit: Colin via Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0 (adapted) The controversial new law, also known as the 'Snooper's Charter', has long been embroiled in controversy due to the far-reaching consequences of enabling government agencies to conduct widespread mass-surveillance of the population.

Described as the "most intrusive system of any democracy in history", the new legislation makes it mandatory for Internet Service Providers to record the details of every website a person visits.

Some might argue that they have nothing to hide, but what this means is that the UK government (and agencies with access to this data) will know absolutely everything about you including your social and political interests, your medical concerns, who you talk to online... everything.

"So, whether citizens have anything to hide or not is no longer for them to decide - their government will do it for them," said online security researcher Lee Munson.

The new law also enables law enforcement agencies to gain access to your emails, mobile phone texts and other correspondences that would normally remain private.To make matters worse, many of these new surveillance powers do not even require a warrant.

There is also the question of what would happen if an unscrupulous individual or group were to gain unauthorized access to all this collected data and leak some or all of it on to the Internet.

"No [western] government anywhere has passed such laws on bulk collection and bulk hacking because it's mass surveillance," said Gus Hosein, director of Privacy International.

"Time and again, courts have ruled this is unlawful and unacceptable in a democratic society."

It remains unclear where things are likely to go from here, but with the passing of this new law in the UK it may not be long before similar legislation appears in other countries as well.

Perhaps George Orwell's dystopian novel '1984' wasn't quite so far-fetched after all.

Source: Independent

Tags: Privacy, Surveillance