Safe Speed Forums

Friday January 9, 2009

Looming rules that will force internet companies to keep details of every email sent in the UK are an attack on privacy and a waste of money, it has been claimed.

From March, all internet service providers (ISP) will have to keep data about emails sent and received in the UK for a year.

Content of individual emails is not being kept by the authorities, but the timing and number of each communication are.

The law is being implemented as part an EC directive, and the Government will reportedly have to pay the ISPs more than £25 million to ensure the law is obeyed.

Dr Richard Clayton, a security researcher at the University of Cambridge's computer lab said the costs of the regulation could have been better spent.

He told the BBC: "There's going to be a record of every single email which arrived addressed to you and all the emails you sent out via your ISP. That of course includes all the spam."

The Earl of Northesk, a Conservative peer on the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee, said it meant anyone's movements could be traced 24 hours a day.

He told the broadcaster: "This degree of storage is equivalent to having access to every second, every minute, every hour of your life. People have to worry about the scale, the virtuality of your life being exposed to round about 500 public authorities.

"Under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, privacy is a fundamental right... it is important to protect the principle of privacy because once you've lost it it's very difficult to recover."

The Home Office said the data would be useful for combating crime.

Friday January 9,2009

Looming rules that will force internet companies to keep details of every email sent in the UK are an attack on privacy and a waste of money, it has been claimed.

From March, all internet service providers (ISP) will have to keep data about emails sent and received in the UK for a year.

Content of individual emails is not being kept by the authorities, but the timing and number of each communication are.

The law is being implemented as part an EC directive, and the Government will reportedly have to pay the ISPs more than £25 million to ensure the law is obeyed.

Dr Richard Clayton, a security researcher at the University of Cambridge's computer lab said the costs of the regulation could have been better spent.

He told the BBC: "There's going to be a record of every single email which arrived addressed to you and all the emails you sent out via your ISP. That of course includes all the spam."

The Earl of Northesk, a Conservative peer on the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee, said it meant anyone's movements could be traced 24 hours a day.

He told the broadcaster: "This degree of storage is equivalent to having access to every second, every minute, every hour of your life. People have to worry about the scale, the virtuality of your life being exposed to round about 500 public authorities.

"Under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, privacy is a fundamental right... it is important to protect the principle of privacy because once you've lost it it's very difficult to recover."

The Home Office said the data would be useful for combating crime.

There's going to be a record of every single email which arrived addressed to you and all the emails you sent out via your ISP.

I watched the film Traitor recently. In one scene the terrorists were discussing sending terror commands by email. A bright spark said their emails need not actually be sent in order to communicate their messages, logging into the account see the unsent draft message was enough. This is one of a few simple techniques that totally circumvent that kind of surveillance (of content, timing, frequency or otherwise). So much for being "useful for combating crime"!

This weekend, I'll write up an RFC for a new protocol, known as ESECRETS that allows you secretly send secrets to people. The politicians are chumps, they really are.

Ah, but a new law will be created where being caught using ESECRETS will make you automatically guilty of terrorism.

Yes, but no-one will know you have been using ESECRETS - it will be secret. The messages will be disguised in normal traffic (movies, emails, sound clips, etc.) and the "authorities" will be unable to tell the difference between ESECRET traffic and normal traffic. You'll only be able to tell if you are already expecting some ESECRETs to arrive. That's the idea, anyway.

Yes, but no-one will know you have been using ESECRETS - it will be secret. The messages will be disguised in normal traffic (movies, emails, sound clips, etc.) and the "authorities" will be unable to tell the difference between ESECRET traffic and normal traffic. You'll only be able to tell if you are already expecting some ESECRETs to arrive. That's the idea, anyway.

Deep Packet Inspection.

That is just steganography isn't it?

How can we protect ourselves against this? Are there any encrypted e-mail systems available? Not going through your ISP? Not using port 25?

The Home Office said the data would be useful for combating crime.

Why do the people keep falling for this same line over and over again?

LABOUR. MUST. GO.

Deep Packet Inspection.

But the email info to be kept is only the addressee and the destination, and time/date.
So who cares ?

You KNOW "they" are not going to bother about you/me/us.

Thats what people said when all the spy cameras started going in. "they're to catch criminals/terrorists innit, what do decent people have to fear?"