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Patients win choice of sharing medical records


Earlier this year, we led the concern that a new NHS data sharing plan would see every patient's medical records uploaded to a new information system without the right to opt-out. We warned at the time that patient records would be out of patient control. On Friday, the Secretary of State confirmed that this will not be the case. We have worked closely with MedConfidential and Privacy International to ensure

The snoopers charter is dead


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

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,

Boom in private investigators risks avoiding surveillance regulation


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

Small bloggers good, small newspapers bad

Posted on by Big Brother Watch Posted in Freedom of Expression, Leveson | 2 Comments

papersThe latest twist in the Leveson saga is the Government’s proposed amendments to protect ‘small scale bloggers’.

We previously warned the drafting meant groups like Big Brother Watch could be covered, along with websites like ConHome and Mumsnet.

The amendment makes clear if you’re a multi-author blog with a turnover below £2m, you won’t be considered a ‘relevant publisher’ for the purposes of exemplary damages and cost protections. This is an important clarification. (Although the bill does still appear to lack a definition of ‘blog’, which could prove interesting – and expensive to argue in court.)

However, the drafting only protects either ‘incidental’ publishers of news-related material, or multi-author blogs. So someone who is not a blog, who publishes news-related material on a regular basis, remains in scope even if their turnover is £10,000.

In other words, if you’re a small, local newspaper with 3 staff and a turnover of £100,000 then you’re still a relevant publisher, but if you are a £1.5m turnover blog with 8 full time staff you’re not.

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Communications data, North Korea style

Posted on by Big Brother Watch Posted in CCDP, Communications Data Bill, International, Internet freedom, Online privacy, Privacy, Surveillance, Technology | 9 Comments

KJUmemeOne of the Prime Minister’s closest advisors has warned that the Home Office’s Communications Data plans to monitor email and web use could be “disastrous” and compared it to North Korea.

As reported by the Telegraph, Ben Hammersley, a Number 10 adviser to the Tech City project, the told magazine Tank:

“As a society, it would be stupid to build the infrastructure that could be used to oppress us. It just never works out well, because even if you’re using it for good stuff now, the fact that we don’t know who is going to be in charge in ten years’ time means that we shouldn’t give them free toys to play with.”

This follows remarks he made last year, when Mr Hammersley said the plans were ‘hilarious’ because of their technical naivety:

“The idea that the internet is like the postal service or like the copper line phone network in that it can be monitored in such a way is hilarious, because it can’t be technologically speaking, unless you become North Korea. Unless you become massively draconian you can’t either monitor propery or censor completely the internet.”

We previously highlighted the number of public organisations given access to the data – covering who you email, which websites you browse and the social media messages you send – is inevitably going to increase, with more than 30 already asking for the data before the bill has even been presented to parliament. This ‘function creep’ was also identified by Hammersley, who warned :

“I don’t trust future governments. The successors of the politicians who put this in place might not be trustworthy.

 

Form an orderly queue for snooping data

Posted on by Big Brother Watch Posted in CCDP, Civil Liberties, Communications Data Bill, Councils, Data Protection | 25 Comments

ITteamToday’s Daily Telegraph reports on the ‘rush’ from public bodies to gain access to the data collected under the Home Office’s Communications Data Bill.

According to information uncovered by Big Brother Watch, “Council staff, health and safety inspectors and even Royal Mail want to harness the Government’s proposed “Snoopers’ Charter” to monitor private emails, telephone records and internet use.”

As soon as the details of what websites we look at and who we communicate with online is stored, it’s a honey pot of information that every bureaucrat, hacker and rogue government is going to try and gain access to.

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Fifteen reasons the Communications Data Bill is the wrong approach

Posted on by Big Brother Watch Posted in CCDP, Communications Data Bill, Information Commissioner, Internet freedom, Mastering the Internet, Surveillance | 4 Comments

i paperThe Home Office still appears to be pressing ahead with it’s plans to monitor the internet and many of our supporters have asked for an update of what is happening. Simply, we do not know. The process remains as it began – closed, without public consultation and driven by desire to implement the same pre-determined solution we have seen for nearly a decade. So, as we are unable to say what is happening, we can summarise the wide range of arguments – many of which were not considered by the Joint Committee on the draft Bill – why the Bill is the wrong approach at the wrong time.

  1. The policy is based on the argument that less data is available now. This is plainly untrue. Far, far more data is available now, however it is unclear if the police are able to make best use of this new data.
  2. It tries to force the internet into the framework of landline telephones.
  3. The cost of the plan – £2bn – will be taken from front line policing budgets to pay for another massive Whitehall IT project, instead of funding more specialist officers and better training.
  4. It has been formulated without public consultation, while one company – Detica – is apparently both providing advice on what is feasible, while also selling the consultancy and hardware required to implement the law.
  5. Encrypted communications will not be captured, at a time when businesses are moving to more encryption. The policy risks driving the uptake of secure communications, reducing even further the amount of data available.
  6. The policy involves paying private companies to create and store data about how their customers use the internet, when they have no reason to do so other than the state demanding it.
  7. It also allows for service providers to be ordered by the Government to collect data about third party services, including foreign companies.
  8. Less democratic regimes will be at liberty to monitor the emails and internet use of every citizen under the guise of ‘we are doing what Britain is doing’. This destroys decades of foreign policy work on maintaining a free and open internet.
  9. It puts Britain at a major competitive disadvantage internationally – small companies will not want to start here in fear of growing large and being slapped with an Order from the Home Office, while those served will be hamstrung by the technical specifications imposed on them by Whitehall and the need to divert resources to comply with the requirements
  10. It will do nothing to improve the ability of law enforcement agencies to access data held by foreign companies, who co-operate voluntarily.
  11. Equally, it does nothing to speed up the legal process for international requests for data
  12. It retains a model of the police self-authorising access to data, without independent or judicial oversight
  13. As soon as the data is collected, the list of people with access will grow. From the Health and Safety Executive to divorce lawyer, as with every previous law of this type the number of people who have access will only grow.
  14. It risks introducing security vulnerabilities into communications networks that form a core part of our critical national infrastructure.
  15. There is a risk of legislating too soon to fix a perceived problem that turns out to be the wrong approach, without considering a wider range of approaches. (Remember how the Digital Economy Act turned out?) The Home Office decided on this approach a decade ago and have barely revised their approach since the 2009 consultation that ruled out a central database.

In summary, this is an out-dated, poorly formulated policy and risks doing more harm than good. No wonder then that the Home Office don’t seem keen to talk about it or undertake any kind of public consultation.

Can you support Sgt Danny Nightingale?

Posted on by Big Brother Watch Posted in Civil Liberties, Featured | 1 Comment

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 lawyer, Simon McKay, we have launched this campaign to secure the much-needed funding to pay for Danny’s legal team.

In the event of any funds remaining after the payment of Danny’s legal bills, they will be donated to the SAS Regimental Association.

With costs potentially running to £150,000 for a prolonged battle, every donation makes a big difference and we urge you to give generously.

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Margaret Thatcher, 1925-2013.

Posted on by Big Brother Watch Posted in Home | 5 Comments

commons day“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 children, so that they may build a better future that will sustain over the world the responsibilities and blessings of freedom.”

Margaret Thatcher.

New figures suggest Scottish CCTV is spiralling out of control

Posted on by Emma Carr Posted in Home | 4 Comments

camerasLocal authorities in Scotland have rushed to install even more CCTV cameras, which are proved to be an expensive and evidentially unsuccessful means of surveillance.

The public would be far safer if the money was spent on street lighting, proper policing and actually punishing criminals when they are caught, rather than giving them a slap on the wrist and putting them back on the streets. In too many towns we now have a CCTV on every street corner, yet never see a police officer there.

New figures have ignited fears that CCTV is “spiralling out of control” in Scotland after councils and police forces have spent more than £8 million to maintain their CCTV systems in the last year alone. There are now at least 4,114 public-space CCTV cameras and mobile camera vans across Scotland, with hundreds of staff employed to monitor them. The figures show that this is an increase of 1,000 cameras in less than a year.

The increase in cameras comes at a time when many other local authorities are, in fact, reassessing their use of CCTV, which has resulted in a decrease in the use of cameras.

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Time for action on Google’s privacy policy

Posted on by Big Brother Watch Posted in Data Protection, Europe, Google, Information Commissioner | 6 Comments

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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 ahead of user privacy and the way that the company ignored concerns from regulators around the world when it changed its privacy policy showed just how little regard it has for the law. Read more

The social media shaped hole in surveillance law

Posted on by Emma Carr Posted in Online privacy, Police, Privacy, RIPA, Social Networking, Surveillance, Technology | 2 Comments

facebook_logo-300x99Over the last decade there has been an increasing change in the nature of surveillance – particularly the ability to search online, through social networks and through semi-public sources of information, reinforcing the need for the law to be reformed to protect the public from unwarranted surveillance.

What needs to be made very clear is that just because information is on the internet, it does not necessarily follow that the police should collect and analyse it. It is essential that it the gathering of information is proportionate, necessary, balanced against the need of police to do their job, allows for a free and open internet and meets the public’s expectations of privacy.

Our recent report on the use of private investigators by public authorities highlighted how the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA) is in fundamental need of reform to protect against unauthorised surveillance; whether that be acquiring data through social media websites or the use of private investigators undertaking surveillance without appropriate supervision and authorisation. As the Joint Committee on the draft Communications  Data Bill Warned, the “language of RIPA is out of date and should not be used as the basis on new legislation.”

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Can the Lords salvage something from the Justice and Security Bill?

Posted on by Big Brother Watch Posted in Civil Liberties, Ministry of Justice | 1 Comment

5946829399_e633991652_oToday Andrew Tyrie MP and Anthony Peto QC have published their follow-up paper on the Justice and Security Bill for the Centre for Policy Studies. It makes for harrowing reading.

The Bill now heads back to the Lords today, where it started. The House of Lords voted for major amendments, introducing more discretion for judges and making the use of CMPs a last resort. The Government removed most of these amendments during Committee stage, in most cases by a single vote, despite repeated warnings that the Bill’s proposals constitute a radical departure from fundamental constitutional principles.

As Andrew Tyrie MP says: “The Lords did good repair work on the Bill, but the Government has undone much of it. The Lords now have a final chance to restore their original sensible amendments and further improve the Bill.  I very much hope that they will do take it.”

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