In a word, yes. When news broke of the US Government’s wholesale request for data on Associated Press journalists, The New Yorker quickly highlighted how US law allowed the Department of Justice to go straight to the phone companies, without notifying AP (although it’s own guidelines said this should not normally happen.) Because of this, there was no opportunity to test the justification for such a massive intrusion on the freedom of the press.
Could the AP scandal happen in Britain?
May 15, 2013
Posted in CCDP, Civil Liberties, Data Protection, Databases, Freedom of Expression, International, Police, Privacy
1 Comment
Everything Everywhere, IpsosMori and the mystery of 27m peoples data
May 13, 2013
Posted in Data Protection, Databases, Information Commissioner, Mobile Phones, Surveillance
7 Comments
Yesterday’s Sunday Times carried an alarming story on its front page about the mobile phone data of 27 million EE customers being sold to IpsosMori, and in turn onto third parties including the Met Police. The paper would clearly have not published without a sufficiently high standard of evidence and the Met police’s reaction – to suddenly announce it was abandoning the plans, despite high-level meetings in recent weeks – suggests a nerve has been touched. The paper’s evidence is … →
Sofa snooping: coming to a council near you
Today’s Gloucester Citizen carries a remarkable story about “husband and wife councillors who watch CCTV of kids on their living room telly”. As the paper reports, “Hardwicke Parish Council duo Fran and Lyn Welbourne have been so pro-active in monitoring the village youth shelter that they have the live footage beamed right into their home.” It beggars belief that someone thought it appropriate to allow Councillors to have public CCTV of a youth centre piped into their living rooms. These … →
The snoopers charter is dead
April 25, 2013
Posted in CCDP, Communications Data Bill, Databases, Featured, Information Commissioner, Surveillance, Technology
8 Comments
More than a year ago, we learned that the Home Office was resurrecting it’s plan to monitor every British citizens’ internet use. Big Brother Watch led the charge against these plans, giving evidence to Parliament, urging our supporters to write to their MPs and being the central force in the media campaign against the so called Snoopers Charter. We highlighted how the Home Office had misrepresented the work of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre to support the bill, … →
Can you support Sgt Danny Nightingale?
Three weeks today, Sergeant Danny Nightingale will report to the Military Court Centre in Bulford, Wiltshire for a preparatory hearing. This is as a result of the Service Prosecuting Authority exercising its right to seek a re-trial of Sgt Nightingale. Like many people, Big Brother Watch has been dismayed at the treatment of Sgt Nightingale. Despite his conviction being quashed at the Court of Appeal, military prosecutors continue to pursue Sgt Nightingale so today, working in conjunction with Danny’s family and … →
Margaret Thatcher, 1925-2013.
“We who are living in the west today are fortunate. Freedom has been bequeathed to us. We have not had to carve it out of nothing; we have not had to pay for it with our lives. But it would be a grave mistake to think that freedom requires nothing of us. Each of us has to earn freedom anew in order to possess it. We do so not just for our own sake, but for the sake of our … →
Time for action on Google’s privacy policy
In a statement issued today, it was announced six European data protection authorities are to launch coordinated and simultaneous enforcement actions relating to Google’s privacy policy. We raised concerns at the time about how the “simplified” privacy policy made it possible for Google to combine data from across a whole range of services, without consumers being able to understand what happens to their data or to choose to not share their data in this way. Google has repeatedly put profit … →
Groups unite to condemn Leveson law
This letter, signed by Big Brother Watch and 19 others, appears in today’s Guardian. Dear Editor, The Leveson Inquiry was set up to address “the culture, practices and ethics of the press, including contacts between the press and politicians and the press and the police”. Our views diverge on whether the outcome of the Leveson process — and the plans for a new regulator — are the best way forward. But where we all agree is that current attempts at … →
Less than 48 hours before we are part of the Leveson regulation
3pm Friday is the deadline for amendments to be submitted to the Crime and Courts Bill, which is in the Lords on Monday. The clauses being considered include those for various parts of the Leveson “deal” (Of course, given this isn’t statutory regulation of the press we may well be imagining it.) Let us be clear – the manner in which this has been brought to bear, in 2am meetings with lobbyists, no civil society input, rushed drafting and ill-considered … →
Boom in private investigators risks avoiding surveillance regulation
March 17, 2013
Posted in Civil Liberties, Councils, Featured, Research and reports, Surveillance
18 Comments
Our latest report highlights the growing use of private investigators by local and public authorities, particularly the number of times they are used without RIPA authorisation. The law in the UK, particularly the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984, is broadly drawn to allow evidence to be introduced in court that in other jurisdictions would not be deemed admissible. Contrasted with the fruit of the poisonous tree provisions in the US, and broader protection offered by the Fourth Amendment, UK … →