MI5 'secretly collected phone data' for decade

Re:MI5 'secretly collected phone data' for decade by madaxe_again on Friday November 06, 2015 @08:12AM (#10519252)

Actually, part of the new bill allows this to all happen without judicial oversight or process if the case is "urgent" (aren't they all?), at the sole behest of the home secretary - with an ex-post-facto judicial review. They can indeed force you, and if you won't present, they can then hack you, detain you, do whatever they wish, essentially.

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Re:MI5 'secretly collected phone data' for decade by DanBC on Friday November 06, 2015 @08:17AM (#10519270)

Currently "urgent" refers to situations where someone is in immediate risk of death or severe harm. This is unlikely to change - they don't have the staff to include more stuff.

I agree that it's a very worrying bill with several attacks on important civil liberties.

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Re:MI5 'secretly collected phone data' for decade by jessaustin on Friday November 06, 2015 @11:40AM (#10520346)

This is unlikely to change - they don't have the staff to include more stuff.

If we can expect anything, based on recent history, it is that surveillance techniques that previously required onerous human labor, will soon easily be done in automated fashion.

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Re:MI5 'secretly collected phone data' for decade by madaxe_again on Friday November 06, 2015 @08:24AM (#10519300)

Indeed. Probably has something to do with the fact that they quietly (and not so quietly, in some cases) took an axe to the judiciary a few years back.

It could also be argued that if someone is a terror suspect, then there may be an immediate risk, but to know so they must have more access, so it is therefore urgent that they do. This is the kind of Kafkaesque circular logic I'm increasingly coming to expect from the state.

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Re:MI5 'secretly collected phone data' for decade by DanBC on Friday November 06, 2015 @09:55AM (#10519737)

Oh, the urgency I'm talking about is children being raped by gangs of men. This is a much more common use of police intelligence needing urgent access to phone records than terrorism.

As you say, with terrorism there's not the immediate need and there's usually a bunch more information.

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Re:MI5 'secretly collected phone data' for decade by pjc50 on Friday November 06, 2015 @11:22AM (#10520246)

How is the inquiry into the Rotherham non-investigation going, anyway?

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Re:MI5 'secretly collected phone data' for decade by jessaustin on Friday November 06, 2015 @11:41AM (#10520356)

Why pick out that case?

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Re:MI5 'secretly collected phone data' for decade by DanBC on Friday November 06, 2015 @12:48PM (#10520752)

IN that case the police didn't need any special surveillance powers. They were being approached by children who said "I am being repeatedly gang raped by men who have groomed me with money and drugs, and who are now selling me as a child prostitute"; and by sexual health clinics who were providing abortions and STI services to children; and by teachers; and by social workers.

Those police did nothing with that information.

It's a reasonable point: Why do they want these extra powers when they've failed to protect so many vulnerable children?

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