Thursday, November 24, 2016

How can I protect myself from government snoopers?

The UK has just passed the Investigatory Powers Act 2016, at the third attempt, and it will become law by the end of the year. The bill was instigated by the then home secretary, Theresa May, in 2012. It is better known as the snooper’s charter.

Jim Killock, the director of Open Rights Group, described it as the “most extreme surveillance law ever passed in a democracy”. It more or less removes your right to online privacy.

The law forces internet service providers to keep a record of all the websites – not the actual pages – you visit for up to a year. It also obliges companies to decrypt data on demand and gives government security services the power to hack your computers, tablets, mobile phones and other devices.

To some extent, the new law merely legalises the current “custom and practice” as revealed by Edward Snowden. The most obvious difference is that it makes your web history readily available to almost 50 assorted police forces and government departments. These include the British Transport Police, the Department of Health, the Food Standards Agency, the Gambling Commission, and the Welsh Ambulance Services NHS Trust. Full story...

Related posts:
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  3. Two-thirds of the world's internet users live under government censorship...
  4. Safe and Sorry – is mass surveillance making us safer?
  5. Yahoo secretly scanned users’ emails for US intelligence
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