Cybersecurity & Standards, Government Surveillance
Draft UK Surveillance Bill Would Do More Harm than Good to Privacy
Today, United Kingdom Home Secretary Theresa May released the Draft Investigatory Powers Bill, which will govern UK secret surveillance if adopted. Aimed at creating a more transparent and simplified surveillance law, the draft bill does provide for some additional oversight for government surveillance practices, but also introduces alarming, privacy-eroding practices. These include forcing communications service providers to keep a record of their customers’ web browsing histories as well as their calls, e-mails, and other communications, and new restrictions that may hamper the use of end-to-end encryption technologies. The Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT) hopes that significant improvements are made to the draft bill before it is enacted.
“By taking the bold step of rewriting their surveillance laws, the UK has the opportunity to create a global model for surveillance that enhances security while protecting privacy rights. Instead, we see measures that would weaken the security of our communications technologies and mandate more tracking of individuals’ communications online,” said Sarah St.Vincent, CDT’s Human Rights and Surveillance Legal Fellow. “These are extremely intrusive and wide-ranging powers that very likely violate the UK’s obligations under human rights and EU law.”
“While it’s a positive step to include some additional oversight of surveillance orders at least where content is concerned, we remain concerned about how thorough that oversight will be, and whether it is actually capable of preventing serious abuses. The continuing lack of judicial authorization for surveillance of metadata remains deeply troubling, especially given how much detail metadata can reveal about the most sensitive aspects of a person’s private life,” St.Vincent added.
CDT will continue to review the draft Investigatory Powers Bill and provide more in-depth analysis in the coming days. Visit www.cdt.org to keep track of our latest insights on the troubling proposal.
