European Policy, Government Surveillance
Tech companies are slamming a proposed UK terrorism law. Here’s why.
Washington Post:
The world’s biggest tech firms — including Apple, Microsoft and Yahoo — are pressing for changes to a proposed British law aimed at expanding the government’s electronic surveillance powers.
Rather than protect well-meaning citizens, the bill will force tech firms to hack their own customers — and in the process break the laws of other countries, some of the companies said in filings Monday to a U.K. panel charged with reviewing the proposed legislation. The bill could also set a precedent for other governments and even repressive regimes to impose draconian requirements on tech firms concerning user data.
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Privacy analysts said Monday that the Investigatory Powers bill would set a remarkable surveillance precedent.
“It also somewhat brazenly seeks to extend UK law to the entire Internet by allowing UK authorities to demand non-UK businesses retain data about their users’ behaviors online,” said Joseph Lorenzo Hall, chief technologist at the U.S.-based Center for Democracy and Technology.
