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For Immediate Release
February, 11 2016, 07:30am EDT
Contact:
Brian Wesolowski,Director of Communications,press@cdt.org,+1 (202) 407-8814
UK Parliament Report Rejects Encryption Backdoors, Other Parts of Sweeping Surveillance Bill
Today, the UK Parliament's Draft Investigatory Powers Bill Joint Committee -- a group of Members of Parliament charged with assessing a draft of sweeping new surveillance legislation -- issued an important report recommending significant changes to the proposed law.
WASHINGTON
Today, the UK Parliament's Draft Investigatory Powers Bill Joint Committee -- a group of Members of Parliament charged with assessing a draft of sweeping new surveillance legislation -- issued an important report recommending significant changes to the proposed law. The Committee's report explicitly opposes any government effort to require encryption backdoors, urges the adoption of clearer definitions of key terms, recommends that the new body that would authorize UK surveillance be more independent, and calls out provisions for supposedly "targeted" surveillance that could be abused by authorities who wish to spy on large numbers of people.
"The Joint Committee is absolutely right to oppose encryption backdoors and to tell the UK government it shouldn't try to get away with using 'targeted' surveillance to monitor large groups of people who have no meaningful connection to any wrongdoing," said Sarah St.Vincent, Human Rights and Surveillance Legal Fellow at the Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT). "The Committee clearly understands the ways in which the government can and very well may exploit any loopholes in the law. The Home Secretary and Parliament should take the Committee's recommendations to close those loopholes very seriously."
"The Committee's report is far from perfect, and we disagree with a number of its recommendations, including some of those concerning equipment interference and data retention," St.Vincent added. "However, the Committee's frank recognition of the ways these powers can threaten privacy rights, as well as its clear concern about government overreach, are on the right track."
"Everyone in the UK -- in fact, everyone around the world, given the global extent of many of the powers the UK government would have under the Bill -- needs to be worried about this legislation. This report strongly reinforces that point," St.Vincent concluded.
The UK Home Secretary released a draft of the Investigatory Powers Bill, which covers surveillance issues ranging from the interception of the content of communications to the retention of metadata and government hacking of systems and devices, in November. CDT has criticized the draft Bill and submitted comments to the Joint Committee that are quoted in several important sections of the report. The Home Secretary is expected to introduce the Bill formally to Parliament later this year.
CDT will continue to advocate for major reforms to the Bill and will also have additional analysis of the report available at cdt.org.
The Center for Democracy and Technology works to promote democratic values and constitutional liberties in the digital age. With expertise in law, technology, and policy, CDT seeks practical solutions to enhance free expression and privacy in global communications technologies. CDT is dedicated to building consensus among all parties interested in the future of the Internet and other new communications media.
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'Inconceivable': US Condemned Over Decision to Provide Landmines to Ukraine
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The Biden administration's decision Tuesday to reverse its own policy and greenlight the provision of anti-personnel landmines to Ukraine drew international condemnation, with human rights organizations warning that generations of civilians will bear the costs of the move.
The International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), which won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997 for its work against the weapons, said Wednesday that it "strongly condemns" the Biden administration's move and noted that Ukraine is prohibited from acquiring or using landmines under the terms of the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production, and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on Their Destruction.
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Speaking to reporters Wednesday, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said that Ukraine has "asked for" anti-personnel landmines.
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Rocha said he's still waiting to see how the field develops before jumping in, and "if there's a better candidate that really stands for what I want to see done with the party."
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