Editorials & Other Articles

bemildred

(90,061 posts) Mon Apr 13, 2015, 08:52 AM Apr 2015

The Metadata 'Blackmail Machine' At The Heart Of Britain's Digital Policy Deficit

David Davis has a problem. The Tory heavyweight and 2005 leadership contender who was once the face of opposition to ID cards has now focused the full force of his influence on digital freedom, privacy and surveillance.

The thing is, everyone knew what an ID card was. But when it comes to digital freedom and surveillance, his problem is getting David Cameron, Theresa May, and the majority of parliament, to even comprehend what he is talking about.

Politicians, to put it bluntly, don’t understand the internet. And he is palpably correct. This has been a Parliament where the prime minister suggested he might ban Snapchat, where disastrous and ineffective ‘opt-in’ porn legislation was introduced, and where it emerged a Baroness who sits on the Lords technology committee thought Google Maps kept a camera trained on her home address.

“You have the Home Secretary actually saying things like telephone metadata is just the same as your phone bill,” Davis railed in his Portcullis House office. “I can’t imagine she’s telling fibs, so she plainly doesn’t know what she’s talking about.”

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2015/04/10/david-davis-beyond-the-ba_n_7039246.html

3 replies

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The Metadata 'Blackmail Machine' At The Heart Of Britain's Digital Policy Deficit (Original Post) bemildred Apr 2015 OP

UK teachers see thin line between spy and protector bemildred Apr 2015 #1

Interesting issues addressed there..... KoKo Apr 2015 #2

It's hard to make sense when you don't know what you are talking about. bemildred Apr 2015 #3

bemildred

(90,061 posts)

1. UK teachers see thin line between spy and protector

Reply to bemildred (Original post)

Mon Apr 13, 2015, 09:19 AM

Apr 2015

London, UK - Teachers have claimed that they are being pressured to spy on their own students because of new counterterrorism laws which they say risk scapegoating Muslim school children and stifling discussion of controversial issues in the classroom.

Delegates attending this week's conference of the National Union of Teachers (NUT), the UK's largest union of school staff, voted in favour of a motion criticising the government's anti-radicalisation strategy - "Prevent" - after hearing that teachers were being used as "front-line stormtroopers" to monitor students for signs of extremism.

"We have to be clear that we are being put in the position where we are being expected to be the front-line stormtroopers, who listen, spy and notify the authorities about students that we may be suspicious of," Jan Nielsen, a teacher from London, told the conference.

The motion also questioned new regulations requiring schools to actively promote so-called "fundamental British values", defined by the government as a commitment to "democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs".

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2015/04/uk-teachers-thin-line-spy-protector-150412075115174.html

KoKo

(84,711 posts)

2. Interesting issues addressed there.....

Reply to bemildred (Original post)

Mon Apr 13, 2015, 12:34 PM

Apr 2015

liked the reference to Snowden revealing the GCHQ and the issues that brought up for Davis in clarifying his point of view.

bemildred

(90,061 posts)

3. It's hard to make sense when you don't know what you are talking about.

Reply to KoKo (Reply #2)

Mon Apr 13, 2015, 12:41 PM

Apr 2015

It does much to explain the situation, the NSA vacuum cleaner approach to the internet (you don't have to decide what to collect), the demands for secrecy (you don't have to defend it if you can still deny it), and the insecurity and reactive emotionalism of the defenders of National Obscurity State.

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