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Deutsch: Geplantes britisches Telekommunikationsgesetz wirft Fragen auf

Some of the bills presented on 9 May 2012 in the Queen’s Speech, in which the Queen reads the government’s legislative agenda for the next parliamentary period in front of both Houses of Parliament, raise freedom of expression concerns.

HM the Queen confirmed the intention of the government to introduce the Communications Capabilities Development Programme, a government bill aimed at extending the surveillance of the electronic and telephone communications in UK.

“My government intends to bring forward measures to maintain the ability of the law enforcement and intelligence agencies to access vital communications data under strict safeguards to protect the public, subject to scrutiny of draft clauses’” said HM the Queen in her speech.

However, the text of the bill does not give clear indications regarding these safeguards.

In a letter addressed to the House of Commons, Reporters Without Borders expressed their opinion that the bill was “disproportionate, dangerous and counter-productive”, believing that it “could undermine individual freedoms and potentially lead to widespread abuse.” The bill gives intelligence services the right to access - in real time and without prior authorisation - details of telephone calls, text messages, emails, private messages on social networks and websites visited, which means a breach of the individuals’ right to privacy. Furthermore, the bill would involve serious legal, technical and financial issues and would contravene international conventions ratified by the United Kingdom.

Reporter Without Borders asked in their letter for a series of clarifications related to the bill, including the criteria and circumstances under which personal data can be examined, who would be allowed to access the personal data and for how long, the safeguards for citizens’ protection from abuses and the penalties imposed on the Internet and telephone service providers for not handing over these data.

The communication bill was also criticised by EDRi-member ARTICLE 19 which considers it highly problematic also as it orders ISPs and mobile phone operators to save and store, for one year, details of all communications made by all persons in the UK.

Article 19 believes communication surveillance should be carried out only with a court order and only when strictly necessary. Therefore storing information on all UK citizens, without any suspicion, “constitutes an invasion of privacy which is neither proportionate nor necessary.”

The proposal makes identifying journalistic confidential sources possible, thus discouraging people from providing information or visiting controversial sites, which will affect the right to free expression. The proposed safeguards are also clearly not enough especially having in view the poor data security of the police and private companies.

Both Reporters Without Borders and Article 19 call on the government and parliament to reject the bill.

Open letter to Members of Parliament on Internet surveillance (11.05.2012)
http://en.rsf.org/united-kingdom-open-letter-to-members-of-11-05-2012,...

Article 19 Statement - UK: Government promises defamation reform but backslides on expression and surveillance (11.05.2012)
http://www.article19.org/resources.php/resource/3164/en/uk:-government...

Queen unveils draft internet super-snoop bill - with clauses - Her Maj opens Parliamentary session with clear nod to CCDP (9.05.2012)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/05/09/queen_speech_ccdp/

EDRi-gram: UK: Home Office plans new surveillance measures (11.04.2012)
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number10.7/uk-new-surveillance-measure