
Extreme surveillance' becomes UK law with barely a whimper - chunkyslink
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/nov/19/extreme-surveillance-becomes-uk-law-with-barely-a-whimper
======
visarga
Surveillance train has left the station, can't be stopped any more. It's just
too cheap to use cameras, wireless and large HDDs. AI can sift through videos
efficiently.

So, the only way back to balance is to do government surveillance, and more
generally, to have a multi-way surveillance society in which a single actor
doesn't have monopoly. We have to go all the way now, short of destroying all
surveillance equipment everywhere and making sure nobody recreates it, which,
given incentives, it's impossible to enforce.

The main problem now is balance of power, not if we like surveillance or not.
This new power must not be put only in the hands of an elite. By the same
doctrine of "separation of powers", we should not concentrate all surveillance
power in a single point, because it lacks checks and balances.

~~~
Symbiote
This act is more about telecommunications data than CCTV cameras.

Something that really bothered me is Shami Chakrabarti, previously head of
Liberty and a strong supporter of human rights, now shadow Attorney General,
abstained from voting.

~~~
throwaway1974
"They" probably have dirt on him

The thing about living in a surveillance society is how good people can be
silenced via blackmail.

~~~
vonmoltke
I don't really buy this paranoid viewpoint. If "they" were trying to use
information from surveillance to blackmail people into doing what "they"
wanted, considering the scale of these programs I find it hard to believe that
they would not have tripped over someone who is either functionally
unblackmailable or who is willing to take the hit for the greater good.
Furthermore, at some point it becomes very difficult to _not_ trace leaks of
such information back to government surveillance programs and entities, so
every execution of a blackmail threat poses a serious risk to the blackmailers
It works against key people when used occasionally, but it can't be used at
scale without someone figuring out what is going on.

------
Symbiote
As one example: the act requires ISPs to log _every IP connection_ that their
customers make, for a period of one year.

There's a PDF factsheet on this provision, and a full list of other provisions
on Wikipedia.

[https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachm...](https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/473745/Factsheet-
Internet_Connection_Records.pdf)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Investigatory_Powers_Act](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Investigatory_Powers_Act)

~~~
minxomat
> require communication service providers (CSPs) to retain UK internet users'
> "Internet connection records" – which websites were visited but not the
> particular pages and not the full browsing history – for one year

In what world is a serial list of IP connections that a customer made not a
"browsing history"?

~~~
Symbiote
Presumably, it's not required to record "particular pages" because

\- It sounds reassuring

\- It's not possible to record, for instance when someone accesses secure
sites (the majority of time and pages)

\- It's not necessary, since the a server's logs can easily be cross-
referenced to the TCP connection logs

\- It's not necessary, since _plenty_ of insight results from knowing who,
when, how much, for how long and how often everyone communicates with everyone
else.

------
throw2016
It's odd that the usual hysteria by media, academics, assorted human rights
organizations and concerned citizens about surveillance has been 'toned down'
since the Snowden revelations.

It's nearly guaranteed there would be an earthquake of hysteria and frothing
about totalitarianism and human rights were the revelations not about western
countries. There is nearly zero activism about surveillance apart from the odd
EFF press release.

It telling about the things we are supposed to care about, and the level of
manipulation in local and global affairs over the last few decades and how
countries are run. It seems like all societies we too want to think the worst
of others and make excuses for ourselves. But that kind of posturing by our
media, human rights orgs and reps is now going to become impossible to pull
off with any credibility.

~~~
Silhouette
Groups like Liberty and the ORG have been campaigning against this for as long
as it's been an issue, but if no-one in the mass media is interested in
reporting it, there is only so much they can do. It hasn't even made the "back
pages" of the BBC News web site much in recent months, as far as I've seen,
nor been mentioned on any mainstream TV news broadcast that I've seen.

I'm confused about the current status of the bill. The linked Guardian article
says it received royal assent, thus becoming law, on Thursday. However, as I
write this, Parliament's own web site[1] says it is still in the "ping pong"
stage.

[1]
[http://services.parliament.uk/bills/2015-16/investigatorypow...](http://services.parliament.uk/bills/2015-16/investigatorypowers.html)

~~~
superpanic
Now says "This article was amended on 19 November 2016. The act has not yet
received royal assent, as stated in an earlier version." at the bottom.

~~~
darkr
Classic Grauniad

------
noir_lord
Spending my day off upgrading router to dd-wrt, installing openvpn in an
country that is less friendly to this shit, hardening all my personal machines
and encrypting everything I can encrypt (most of which I should frankly have
done ages ago but I got lazy).

This was pretty much the straw that broke the camels back for me, I've nothing
to hide but fuck them for doing this anyway (and everything they've done
before).

~~~
ZenoArrow
You may be aware of this already, but for anyone thinking along similar
lines... make sure your VPN client guards against DNS leaks. Using a VPN does
not automatically mean your DNS traffic is obfuscated, it's necessary to
configure the VPN so that your ISP does not see your DNS traffic.

[https://www.bestvpn.com/blog/5184/4-ways-to-prevent-a-dns-
le...](https://www.bestvpn.com/blog/5184/4-ways-to-prevent-a-dns-leak-when-
using-vpn/)

[https://www.dnsleaktest.com/what-is-a-dns-
leak.html](https://www.dnsleaktest.com/what-is-a-dns-leak.html)

------
libeclipse
You could argue that this is another unfortunate consequence of brexit.
Theresa May is now prime minister, which she wouldn't be if it wasn't for
brexit.

The only thing we can do now, as developers and creators, is to create simple
and easy tools, softwares, systems for the general public that make this kind
of surveillance difficult or impossible. We need to work together to conserve
and expand what little privacy we have left.

~~~
Symbiote
Technical methods are part of a response, but shouldn't be the only part.

We can also write to our MPs and lords, support organizations like ORG and
Liberty who may challenge this law in court, and educate less-technical
friends, relatives and colleagues.

------
jbwuhwrg
Years ago most people believed they were being watched by God 24/7\. Now we're
being watched by AIs 24/7 and everything is recorded forever

~~~
Normal_gaussian
Do you have evidence for the first claim?

~~~
csydas
It's a play on a quote from Deus Ex.

~~~
Normal_gaussian
Oh, fair enough

Still, I would be particularly interested in anything exploring the extent to
which people did or did not actually believe their 'official' faith throughout
time.

------
rwmj
This government seems determined to destroy the internet in the UK:
[https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2016/nov/19/pornography-...](https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2016/nov/19/pornography-
sites-face-uk-block-under-enhanced-age-controls)

