Online surveillance is a comin!

Nick_oliveri

Ive seen a post on legal speak about this issue (http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055220270) and there was feck all replies so id like to get the opinion of a majority.

http://www.digitalrights.ie/2008/01/19/dri-condemns-backdoor-implementation-of-surveillance-laws/

Government proposals to introduce surveillance of all internet users are unacceptable. The proposed law will require Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to log details of every email, every instant message or chat message, and every time users log on or log off, and to store that information for up to 18 months. This information will then be available without any court order or warrant. These proposals, implementing European law, are being drafted without public consultation and would be implemented by a statutory instrument. There will be no scrutiny by the Oireachtas.

It is incredible that the Government proposes to introduce a law which would require every Internet user to be monitored without any warrant or prior judicial approval, without any public consultation and without any debate or vote in the Oireachtas. A law of this gravity should not be made by stealth.

The Department of Justice appears to be relying on the “urgency” of the matter to justify bypassing the Dail and Seanad. But the European law being implemented was passed in February 2006. The Department has had two years to introduce a Bill and it cannot rely on its own delay to justify sidelining democratic scrutiny.

In any case, it is inappropriate to implement this law whilst it is under court challenge. The Irish government itself has challenged the validity of the law before the European Court of Justice. Digital Rights Ireland has also brought a High Court action challenging the European law. These proposals will effectively pre-empt the judgment of the courts.

Right, im not going to say that i fully trust whatever that link jabbers on about (story and spin might be overly paranoid), and i remember seeing something about this topic last year in this forum and disliked the idea.

Tom Young wrote:

1. Widening of the remits provided to the state in the 2005 CT Act and the 1983/1993 P&T acts in respect of telephone records;
2. The complete disjoin between Data Protection legislation and the Data Retention Directive; and
3. (although defined) the fact that records of illegal downloads and copyright infringements may also be retained.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=54912868&postcount=4

Now that should freak some people out. As should online IM records. I think Ireland might become a hotspot for RIAA or Big movie company claims. This has gone under the radar. I was surprised that i didnt see a larger thread on boards, i used the search function.

Random

I believe there's a few threads in AH about it also.

It's a load of ****e. There's no real justification for it, but what can one do about it.

Just wait until they lose the hard disk with all the information.. then the **** will hit the fan ..

Harryob1

I agree totally.....no need for it at all, especially without a court order or warrant. There is the case of everyones entitlement privacy. i'm sure that infringes on that somehow....what do you think?

carbsy

Just encrypt everything...

thebman

If everyone encrypts stuff, then they could just get permission to search the computers of people who have large traffic statistics on the basis that they are likely to have stolen information or the like which is nonsense because there are plenty of people that don't download illegal stuff that use torrents and the like that would be considered suspicious.

I couldn't believe it when I saw this in the paper.

Mint Sauce

does this also apply to browsing history, because as far as i was aware, the some of the ISPs hold some of this info already, the same as your mobile provider lists your numbers dialed and txt messages sent