Promoting racial justice, civil liberties and human rights Unit 4, Carlisle Business Centre, Manningham, BD8 8BD

Telephone: 01274 542222 Registered Charity No. 1121074 Company No. 6221033

JUST West Yorkshire position statement

JUST WEST YORKSHIRE CALLS ON THE UK GOVERNMENT TO DROP THE PROPOSED LAW TO SPY ON EVERY EMAIL, WEB AND INTERNET PHONE USE
The British government is proposing new legislation which would allow the police and secret services to monitor internet users' email and web activity including every single email, text message, and phone call flowing through the whole country. JUST west Yorkshire (a civil liberties, racial justice and human rights organization) is writing to MPs in the West Yorkshire region asking them to oppose the government plans which will encroach on our freedom and privacy. The plan would force internet service providers to give British intelligence agencies' real-time access to electronic communications. Authorities would gain access to all communications data without a warrant or any judicial oversight. Under the new proposal social media sites and non-UK based services like Google and Facebook would be forced to comply with every data request under this regime, forcing them to comply with any request, regardless of its validity. The Office of the Information Commissioner has expressed grave doubts about the mass surveillance project stating the case had not been made to justify the sweeping expansion in the power of the police and other public bodies to trawl through private communications, including visits to Facebook and eBay. Splits in the coalition over the proposals were signaled by Tim Farron, the Lib Dem president. He said: We didnt scrap ID cards to back creeping surveillance by other means. The

State mustnt be able to trace citizens at will. According to Googles Transparency Report, from January-June 2011 last year, they received 1,279 user data requests from UK authorities and refused to comply with 37%. Under this proposal, that number of refusals would drop to zero. The proposal is a massive encroachment on privacy, and has many security risks and potential for further abuse. Internal ICO papers, marked restricted, say the Orwellian plan could lead to the innocent being wrongly identified as criminals or terrorists and barred from flying. The huge cost of the spying project at a time when the Government is making cuts elsewhere has been estimated to cost the taxpayer 2billion. A similar plan was shot down in 2006 by a minority coalition of Liberal Democrats and Conservative party members, some of whom now make up the ruling party that has put forth the new proposal. Thankfully, other members of Parliament are speaking up. Conservative lawmaker David Davis remarked, It is not focusing on terrorists or criminals. It is absolutely everybodyThis is an unnecessary extension of the ability of the state to snoop on ordinary innocent people in vast numbers. Law enforcement would have access to IP addresses, email addresses, when you send an email, to whom you send it, and how frequentlyas well as corresponding data for phone calls and text messages. The government has claimed this proposal is needed to fight terrorism and serious crimes, but of course, it would be available to law enforcement for all purposes. Presently, ISPs keep details of which websites users visit, and who they send and receive emails and internet phone calls from, for 12 months. This information can be accessed retrospectively by investigators, subject to complying with the relevant legal requirements during the investigation or detection of a crime. Under the new proposals, ISPs would install hardware from GCHQ - the Government's electronic snooping agency - allowing investigators to tap into a real-time feed of data, and examine when communications were sent, and who to, in order to build up intelligence on criminal activity. Nick Pickles, director or the campaign group Big Brother Watch, condemned the proposals:

"This is an unprecedented attack on privacy online and it is far from clear this will actually improve public safety, while adding significant costs to internet business. No amount of scare-mongering can hide the fact that this policy is being condemned by MPs in all political parties." JUST West Yorkshire fears that the very people that snooping plans are intended to uncover serious organised criminal gangs, major fraudsters, pedophiles- are the very ones who are already using technology to avoid being snooped upon. Therefore the proposed law is not only a disproportionate response but wholly inadequate to deal with the proposed problem. There may be some criminals who are caught through such government powers - but at what cost to freedom and privacy? How many innocent people will be effected in the process? After the election, the Conservatives decided to resurrect the surveillance plan, giving it a new name, the Communications Capabilities Development Programme. (CCDP) Questions were raised in 2010 by the Information Commissioners Office and it was mentioned in The New Statesman. Now the government are pushing ahead with the CCDP and the queens speech will say that they intend to introduce legislation to implement the programme as soon as possible. There are many things wrong with this programme of surveillance. It is impractical, expensive; a huge violation of our privacy and it places too much power in the hands of government. Making the full details of who talks to who available will allow security personnel to trawl through our data on speculative enquiries instead of requiring proper grounds for belief or suspicion. A fundamental right enshrined in the Human Rights Act is Article 8 Right and respect to family and private life. Every person has the right to go about his lawful business without interference from the state. Britain is already one of the most spied-upon nations with three million operations carried out under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act ostensibly an anti-terror law over the last decade which has been misused by local authorities to catch people dropping litter, and to monitor people on sick leave etc.. These have included thousands of operations by town hall bureaucrats, the Financial Services Authority, NHS trusts, the Environment Agency and a plethora of government departments. If these plans concern you, please write to your MP to tell them your objection to the

Communications Capabilities Development Programme. You can use WriteToThem.com to send it if you dont have their details. Please sign the Open Rights Groups petition against government snooping and or alternatively you could sign the Avaaz Stop the Big Brother law petition. Please find relevant links and info below; http://action.openrightsgroup.org/eacampaign/clientcampaign.do? ea.client.id=1422&ea.campaign.id=8227 http://www.avaaz.org/en/stop_the_big_brother_law_a/?cl=1700179358&v=13490

Please see attached our written submissions on the Draft Communications Data Bill