FT 7/3/2000: "LEADER: Spies in the web"

[Caspar Bowden]

http://news.ft.com/ft/gx.cgi/ftc?pagename=View&c=Article&cid=FT4EJ79GI5C&liv
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Editorial comment: Spies in the web
6 Mar 2000 20:24GMT

Big Brother only had television cameras to spy into our living rooms.
Today's governments have computers, with power far beyond anything imagined
by George Orwell in his chilling novel 1984.

But to make best use of their surveillance of internet data, they need to
have the keys to the encryption systems now routinely used to defend
privacy. Yesterday Jack Straw introduced a bill in Britain's House of
(Commons that would give the authorities more intrusive powers than in any
other western democracy.

The home secretary claimed the new powers would be used mainly to track down
serious criminals. Maybe. But as now drafted the legislation would enable
the authorities to collect huge amounts of data on ordinary citizens. It
could load costs on industry and frustrate the use of the internet for
commercial applications that require secure communications.

Among the most objectionable parts of this bill are those which require
internet service providers (ISPs) to become party to secret surveillance of
their customers. This is a large extension of the present system that allows
the home secretary to order telephone companies to tap individual phone
lines.

ISPs would be required to invest in new equipment specifically to siphon off
internet traffic into government computers. They would also be required to
provide the authorities with detailed traffic analysis. This could include
every e-mail address and internet site to which an individual had connected,
possibly including any passwords.

Such surveillance may be targeted on named individuals. But the home
secretary would have the authority to call in great swathes of more general
data for police investigation.

These provisions, together with a presumption of guilt if anyone failed to
give up an encryption key when legitimately asked, potentially give the
authorities enormous additional powers. Clearly the police need the ability
to tap phones in serious cases. And the convergence of telephony and the
internet makes it inevitable that the authority will be extended to data
communications. But the law needs to be more tightly drawn, particularly in
regard to encryption.

Serious crooks will find other ways of keeping their secrets. But internet
commerce will only flourish if all parties are confident of security. The
idea that internet providers should fill police computers with credit card
details, bank statements and commercial contracts may be far from Mr Straw's
intention. But this bill makes it possible. He must think again.