
The UK Is About to Legalize Mass Surveillance - calferreira
http://motherboard.vice.com/read/mass-surveillance-in-the-uk-is-now-legal
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sctb
Some recent discussions:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12978300](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12978300)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13035996](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13035996)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12992672](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12992672)

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mike-cardwell
ISPs get hacked. I configured my phone and home network to route all traffic
over a VPN through a server I set up in France last weekend. So when peoples
browsing history gets leaked en masse, at least mine wont be amongst it.

Governments should be legislating in this area. They should be making it
_illegal_ for ISPs to inspect/store this information. Not compulsory.
Preaching to the choir I guess.

~~~
pavanred
Opera now has a free VPN mode built into the browser, making it very easy to
switch VPN to different countries and requiring just a flip of a switch in the
settings.

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flavor8
VPNs cost money to run. Remember, if you're not paying you may be the product.

~~~
maxt
Also, depending on the strength of crypto in the VPN configuration, the VPN
traffic could be decrypted:

[https://www.spiegel.de/media/media-35526.pdf](https://www.spiegel.de/media/media-35526.pdf)

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msimpson
This article came a bit late. The Queen has already signed the Investigatory
Powers Act as of this morning. Wikipedia has a decent summary of its
provisions:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Investigatory_Powers_Act_2016](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Investigatory_Powers_Act_2016)

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jfindley
What I'm really interested in now is what happens if/when circumvention
becomes significant.

I'll be particularly interested in what happens to websites that publish
circumvention techniques - will they be blocked? Will specific services (e.g.
tor) be targeted, and to what extent? Will foreign VPN providers be blocked?

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secfirstmd
It's probably worth pointing out that many of the most important anti-
surveillance tools like Tor, Signal etc survive on minuscule budgets, most of
which are from US based institutional or NGO grants (open disclosure: so is
Umbrella App which we make). If the UK or others really wanted to hamper them,
going after the funding for maintenance, not the tool itself would probably be
more destructive in the long run unfortunately. Yes open source is great etc
and might survive but development would drop dramatically.

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thght
So, to fight terrorism:

> “The Investigatory Powers Act 2016 will ensure that law enforcement and the
> security and intelligence agencies have the powers they need in a digital
> age to disrupt terrorist attacks, subject to strict safeguards and world-
> leading oversight,” a statement from the Home Office reads.

And as expected some wheeling and dealing once they have the data:

> Many law enforcement agencies will be able to access this data, but so will
> lots of other, less obvious public bodies, including the Food Standards
> Agency, ...

First they steal private data of more than 60 million of innocent people. Then
they share it with "less obvious public bodies", where we have to trust it is
in save hands.. It is just a matter of time before this data is out in the
open. How could we ever feel more safe when they do this? They better call it
"The Criminal Act 2016". Is this what people vote for in a Democracy?

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XJOKOLAT
We deserve this. Our democracy is on life support.

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deutronium
"The Investigatory Powers Act dramatically increases transparency around the
use of investigatory powers." \--

Doesn't that make it sound like they were monitoring people's web history
already?

With 48 odd bodies able to access people's web history, it surely won't be
long before this access is abused.

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HugoDaniel
When this flips maybe there will be a chance for crypto-anarchy[0] to surface.

[0] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crypto-
anarchism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crypto-anarchism)

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alexro
Petition against these laws
[https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/173199](https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/173199)

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akerro
The petition already has a response from government

> The Investigatory Powers Act dramatically increases transparency around the
> use of investigatory powers. It protects both privacy and security and
> underwent unprecedented scrutiny before becoming law.

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phreack
Basically they were already doing it, and it was becoming a concern that it
was illegal, so they retroactively fixed that pesky law, as stopping was never
an option.

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Cozumel
I just want to know why the Food Standards Agency needs or wants access to my
internet history? Is it a list of every Government agency including them? Just
random?

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philfrasty
Anyone permanently using a VPN (e.g. for home traffic) that you can recommend?

~~~
maxt
I only use a VPN for:

\- Spoofing my geo-location

\- Securing my phone's traffic when surfing on a 'free' or tariff-ed wireless
hotspot

Sure, the provider might not keep logs, but it's certainly not for casual
surfing, or heavy surfing. Stick to old reliables like TLS, TOR, and
ADBlockers for _vanilla_ /ISP connections

You might want to read these concerning VPNs and privacy:

\- [http://blog.hidemyass.com/2011/09/23/lulzsec-
fiasco/](http://blog.hidemyass.com/2011/09/23/lulzsec-fiasco/)

\- [https://torrentfreak.com/police-seize-two-perfect-privacy-
vp...](https://torrentfreak.com/police-seize-two-perfect-privacy-vpn-
servers-160902/)

