Internet privacy experts raise concerns over crime bill

[agentman]

I came across this a bit late, this article came out August 9, 2o11.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2011/08/09/pol-internet-privacy.html
Below is a few excerpts from the news story.

“The provisions would give law enforcement agencies more power to take information from internet service providers and other private companies without a warrant, according to Open Media, a consumer watchdog group.”

"The provisions, which critics call warrantless online spying,..."

“The Conservatives have promised to pass the omnibus bill within 100 days of Parliament's post-election return, which was June 2.”

Near the end a spokesperson for the Justice Minister says there will be safeguards,-- yeah right.

The same news was covered on the Huffington Post.
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2011/0...875.html#s331165&title=New_Zealand_Parliament


This chills me to the bone, Big Government taking away our freedom and liberties bit by bit. And by the way I didn’t vote for Harper.




A possible alternative to the BC Liberals/Conservatives/NDP
British Columbia Libertarian Party
Libertarianism is the political philosophy that holds individual liberty as the organizing principle of society. Libertarianism includes diverse beliefs, all advocating minimization of the state and sharing the goal of maximizing individual liberty and political freedom.
http://www.libertarian.bc.ca/
The BCLP advocates civil liberties, and private property rights, including drug legalization, ending government controls on economic activity, and ending coercive taxation.

 

[Devils_Advocate]

New Canadian laws would kill all internet privacy

Harper government to force Internet service providers to give police access to information on all Canadian Internet subscribers and all their private communications – without a court warrant.

Ottawa (22 June 2009) - Canada's Conservative government wants to give police sweeping new powers to eavesdrop on Canadians in cyberspace and to require Internet service providers (ISPs) to snoop on subscribers without a warrant whenever they are asked by police to do so.

Two bills - C-46 and C-47 - introduced in Parliament on June 18 would grant police access without oversight from the courts to all private Internet communications and all information on individual subscribers in the files of ISPs.

Specifically, the legislation would:

free police to access information on an Internet subscriber, such as name, street address and e-mail address without a search warrant.
force Internet service providers to freeze data on hard drives to prevent subscribers under investigation from deleting potentially important evidence.
require telecommunications companies to invest in technology enabling them to intercept all of the Internet communications they handle.
allow police to remotely activate tracking devices already embedded in cell phones and certain cars.
allow police to obtain data about where Internet communications are coming from and going to.
make it a crime to arrange with a second person over the Internet for the sexual exploitation of a child.

Justice Minister Rob Nicholson says police need "21st century tools" to deal with the changing times. Public Safety Minister Minister Peter Van Loan says the changes are needed to combat crime and terrorism in the face of "rapidly evolving communications technologies."

However, privacy groups and those defending individual rights have been quick to criticize the two bills.

"I haven't seen the evidence that substantiates a relaxation of civil liberties in this area," says David Fewer, director of the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic at the University of Ottawa. "It just looks like a grab, under the name of modernization, just a grab of our civil liberties."

Tom Copeland of the Canadian Association of Internet Providers (CAIP) said providers are concerned by the costs the legislation will impose on them to install technology to handle the potentially unlimited communications they are forced to monitor. Smaller ISPs would have up to three years to meet the full snooping requirements required by the bills.

http://www.nupge.ca/node/2375

How would this effect a board like this?

 

[EvilPettingZoo]

There was a pretty good podcast on Rabble about this (link). Recent media coverage (a couple articles in the past week) portray the assue as if police do not have subpoena or search warrant powers over internet communications because those technologies are not written into the current law. However this appears to be about giving police (or more nebulously put, "the authorities," whoever they may be) to sneak and peek without having to get a search warrant first.

It seems like a clear encroachment over personal privacy rights and the expanding of the police state.

Articles:

Internet privacy experts raise concerns over crime bill
Police chiefs want access to Internet communications
Crime rate falls to lowest level since 1973

epz