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Hundreds Of ISPs Refuse To Go Along With Big Brother
Spy System
Communications firms warn of unprecedented extension
of state powers
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A group of over 300 internet service providers and telecommunications
firms is fighting back against the British government's plans
to monitor all emails, phone calls and internet activity nationwide.
The London Internet Exchange (LINX), which represents
some 330 companies, including BT, Virgin and Carphone Warehouse,
says
that the government is misleading the public about
the extent to which it plans to monitor their communications
and internet activity.
LINX has described the Government's surveillance
proposals as an "unwarranted" invasion of people's
privacy.
A statement from the group to the Home Office
reads:
"We view the description of the Government's
proposals as maintaining the capability as disingenuous –
the volume of data the Government now proposes we should collect
and retain will be unprecedented."
"This is a purely political description
that serves only to win consent by hiding the extent of the
proposed extension of powers for the state."
The group also stated that the volume of data
the government wishes it to retain cannot be held by any known
technology at this time.
Last year the government announced its intention
to create
a massive central database, gathering details on
every text sent, e-mail sent, phone call made and website visited
by everyone in the UK.
The programme, known as the "Interception
Modernisation Programme", would allow spy chiefs at GCHQ,
the government’s secret eavesdropping agency, the centre
for Signal Intelligence (SIGINT) activities (pictured above),
to effectively place a “live tap” on every electronic
communication in Britain in the name of preventing terrorism.
Following outcry over the announcement, the government
suggested last April that it was scaling
down the plans, with then Home Secretary Jacqui
Smith stating that there were "absolutely no plans for
a single central store" of communications data.
However, as the "climbdown" was celebrated
by civil liberties advocates and the plan was "replaced"
by new
laws requiring ISPs to store details of emails
and internet telephony for just 12 months, fresh details emerged
indicating the government was implementing a big brother spy
system that far outstrips the original public announcement.
The London Times published leaked details of a
secret
mass internet surveillance project known as "Mastering
the Internet" (MTI).
Costing hundreds of millions in public funds, the system is
already being implemented by GCHQ with the aid of American defence
giant Lockheed Martin and British IT firm Detica, which has
close ties to the intelligence agencies.
(Article continues below)
Currently, any interception of a communication in Britain must
be authorised by a warrant signed by the home secretary or a
minister of equivalent rank. Only individuals who are the subject
of police or security service investigations may be subject
to surveillance.
If the GCHQ's MTI project is completed, black-box probes would
be placed at critical traffic junctions with internet service
providers and telephone companies, allowing eavesdroppers to
instantly monitor the communications of every person in the
country without the need for a warrant.
Even if you believe GCHQ's denial that it has
any plans to create a huge monitoring system, the current law
under the RIPA (the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act)
allows hundreds of government agencies access to the records
of every internet provider in the country.
In publicly announced proposals to extend these powers, firms
will be asked to collect and store even more vast amounts of
data, including from social networking sites such as Facebook.
If the plans go ahead, every internet user will
be given a unique ID code and all their data will be stored
in one place. Government agencies such as the police and security
services will have access to the data should they request it
with respect to criminal or terrorist investigations.
This is clearly the next step in an incremental
program to implement an already exposed full scale big brother
spy system designed to completely obliterate privacy, a fundamental
right under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
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