(UK) The snooper’s charter is flying through parliament. Don’t think it’s irrelevant to you

[unhappycamper]

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/mar/14/snoopers-charter-apple-fbi-bill-hacking-gagging

While the Apple v FBI row makes world headlines, people in the UK are disregarding a bill that permits hacking and gagging

The snooper’s charter is flying through parliament. Don’t think it’s irrelevant to you
Scarlet Kim
Monday 14 March 2016 06.30 EDT

News of the legal dispute between Apple and the FBI has made headlines across the world. The dispute stems from the FBI’s investigation of the 2015 mass shooting in San Bernardino, California. As part of its investigation, the FBI obtained an iPhone used by one of the deceased shooters, Syed Farook. The data on the iPhone is encrypted and the FBI wants Apple to create new software that would cripple core security features of the iPhone.

Apple has refused, challenging a court order obtained by the US government. Apple’s refusal has engendered a heated public debate in the US about the balance between security in the technology products and services we increasingly rely upon, and government authority to undermine that security. The case has divided White House officials, catalysed a congressional hearing and inspired national polling on this issue.

Meanwhile in the UK, the government has unveiled an investigatory powers bill, nicknamed the snooper’s charter, to enshrine these very powers, with fewer safeguards, into primary legislation. Privacy International, with Human Rights Watch, submitted a friend-of-the-court brief in the Apple case to highlight its international implications. But even as the British media and public follow developments in the Apple case, they seem to overlook its relevance to the investigatory powers bill.

This can in part be explained by differences in British and American attitudes to surveillance. Edward Snowden’s revelations regarding the surveillance activities of the US government sparked outrage among Americans, but failed to make a similar impact in the UK. In a YouGov poll commissioned by Amnesty International last year about attitudes to surveillance across 13 countries, Americans felt most strongly that the government should leave citizens alone. David Davis MP said: “Because for the past 200 years we haven’t had a Stasi or a Gestapo, we (the British) are intellectually lazy about it.”