David Cameron and his Liberal Democrat deputy, Nick Clegg, have unveiled emergency surveillance legislation that will shore up government powers to require phone and internet companies to retain and hand over data to the security services.
The “emergency” is apparently a European Court of Justice ruling that was handed down in April. Not sure why they have waited three months since then to unveil this. The Government claim that the bill simply “clarifies” existing powers, but clause 3 apparently allows the Secretary of State to make further regulations at will:
"The Secretary of State may by regulations make further provision about the
retention of relevant communications data."
Drip, drip.
#DRIP
— Jack of Kent (@JackofKent) July 10, 2014
The bill contains a “sunset clause” which will force it to be further debated by MPs by 2016. The Guardian reckons this is good news. I’m not so sure.
A quick reminder for those who say "it's only metadata":
pic.twitter.com/BouLk2Isk2
#stitchup #surveillance
— Adrian Short (@adrianshort) July 10, 2014
Further reading: Open Rights Group | Liberty