Britain says to pass emergency phone and email data law

[dipsydoodle]

Source: Reuters

Britain said on Thursday it would rush through emergency legislation to force telecoms companies to retain the data of users for a year, saying the move was vital to protect national security following a decision by Europe's top court.

Communication companies had been required to retain data for 12 months under a 2006 European Union directive which was thrown out by the European Court of Justice in April.

The scrapping of the directive could deprive police and intelligence agencies of access to information about who customers contacted by phone, text or email, and where and when, the British government said.

British Prime Minister David Cameron said the emergency legislation would restore this capability and enshrine it in law, ensuring investigations would not be hampered and giving protection to the telecom firms from possible legal challenges.

Read more: http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/07/10/uk-britain-security-data-idUKKBN0FF0PC20140710

[msongs]

1. copying the right wing conservative US government nt

[snooper2]

9. So if somebody called someone you loved and said they were going to rape and murder them

Then a month later it happened and the attacker destroyed their cell phone-

Then the police call up T-Mobile for records and T-Mobile says oh, we trashed those, screw you you think we are NAZIS spying on our freedom loving citizens.


Don't complain here-

[delrem]

2. I like that they rushed it through as an "emergency legislation".

I think that's funny as hell, in the most blasphemously evil way.

Somehow something in my gut tells me that the most virulent of Snowden haters will love this decree. The same ones who hate Assange, and for some very special reason, Glenn Greenwald.

[tomm2thumbs]

3. or they can just call up the NSA and ask for a copy of everything...

maybe they'll do that next

[truebrit71]

4. The ECJ strokes down your law... so you pass another one just like it...

With the same fear tactics used when the Patriot act was shoved down our throats. ..

Hopefully this will seal the fate of David Camerawrong on next year's election...

[christx30]

5. Not to mention the heavily

Biased way this article was written. The prose is written to make me think that something terrible was days away from happening. And we NEED to give these vital powers to the police to keep us safe.
The reality is that they are gobbling up information and they aren't shy about admitting it.
Everything in our lives is going to be collected, evaluated, catalogued, and stored for who knows how long. There is no privacy left. 9/11 was wonderful for the security state.

[muriel_volestrangler]

6. Yeah, this 'emergency' claim is nonsense - court decision was on April 8th

( http://www.zdnet.com/eu-data-retention-directive-thrown-out-by-european-court-of-justice-7000028192/ ), so they've waited 3 months, and suddenly they want this forced through parliament in one week? As some MPs say, it's a stitch-up.

[christx30]

10. People are bastards.

One you give them power, even if it's power they shouldn't have, they freak the hell out at any attempt to remove that power. It's a sickness. No one that wants to be a world leader should be allowed to do it. People should be drafted.

[muriel_volestrangler]

7. Miliband (and Clegg) are supporting Cameron on this

The front benches have done a deal in secret, and now expect their parties to fall in line. Cameron is unlikely to suffer much from this. I suppose if Farage came out against it, he might peel a few Tories away to UKIP, but UKIP voters, being a right wing authoritarian bunch, are probably in favour of this.

[Nye Bevan]

8. Silent Circle takes on Skype and Viber with global, encrypted phone calls

Secure communications firm Silent Circle is taking on Skype and mobile operators alike by adding private, encrypted international calls without roaming charges to its Silent Phone service.

Its new Out-Circle Calling international call plans start at $12.95 (£7.55) for 100 minutes, rising to $39.95 for 1000 minutes. Silent Phone users will be able to call one another for free.

The new plans cover landlines and mobiles in 79 countries, which Silent Circle claims is four to five times more than “non-secure competitors” in the voice-over-IP (VoIP) world like Skype and Viber.

The company is targeting businesses with the new plans, claiming to be ale to save their employees tens of thousands of dollars a month on international roaming charges.

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/jul/10/silent-circle-encrypted-phone-calls-skype-viber

It's easy for the bad guys to avoid police surveillance.