From new UK legislation to the FBI, proposals for prying that are carefully sold as reasonable can turn out to be anything but
A sprawling surveillance system – with unprecedented reach into private lives, even private thoughts – is being summoned up from computers and smartphones. It is almost three years since Edward Snowden gave the world the facts. As the tale has turned and twisted since, the pry-masters have insisted that the innocent have nothing to fear, and that everything is done with rigorous checks. But if one moral has run right through the story, it is that soothing whispers of sweet reason should be received with deep scepticism.
The investigatory powers bill, published on Tuesday, illustrates why. It is, in its way, a triumph for Snowden: it involves the British security state coming clean about the extraordinary existing facility to snoop that he exposed, spelling the powers out in statute for the first time. Ahead of its publication the reassuring talk was of the exceptional parliamentary scrutiny that it had gone through, and the 122 tweaks and safeguards that three separate committees had put forward, all carefully considered as the draft law was refined. Yes, there were concessions, such as bowing the knee to reality on what it is feasible to ask of tech companies in relation to encryption. But at the same time, and without any advertisement, some tentacles of surveillance are being licensed to creep further than before.
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Full Story Via Internet | The Guardian