from Hacker News

MI5 'secretly collected phone data' for decade

by yexponential on 11/6/15, 8:00 AM with 150 comments

  • by dijit on 11/6/15, 9:25 AM

    * MI5.

    * GCHQ/Tempora

    * SIS

    * GDS (Government Digital services)

    * Anti-encryption laws being chased through the houses of parliment.

    * It's illegal to not provide, when questioned, the encryption key of a device in your possession.

    * ISP Logging.

    I've wanted to be in tech all my life and I felt that british people have facilitated a lot of good things in the tech world- but I have never been so ashamed to carry my passport. This country is one that had great laws for librarians especially after world war 2 which aided in privacy of the people.

    but now, we seem to have forgotten that once data is collected, it can be used to target and harm people in swathes- it can be used actively to destroy individual people- or even, in moderation, can cause people to self-censor (which carries it's own problems).

    I'm a British citizen, I will not return to the UK while archaic laws and boneheaded policy makers are eroding the very fabric of computer culture. Looks like the next election is in 2020.

  • by mootothemax on 11/6/15, 10:45 AM

    The scary thing about web history logging is that it makes you question your web habits, if not become actively paranoid.

    For instance, the article quotes the head of MI5 regarding preventing the bombing of the London Stock Exchange in 2010.

    I wanted to know more about this, so Googled London Stock Exchange Bomb, and clicked on a few stories, and wanting to find out a bit more about the people involved, I then Googled their names and clicked on a few more links.

    All this time, I had the thought at the back of my head: will these searches and clicks put me on a list somewhere?

    (for anyone who wants to be saved searching for these terms, here's a quick overview: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/terrorism-in-the-uk/9...)

    It's this feeling that I most dislike about it all; something, or someone, somewhere may be watching, and so now I'm questioning myself because some discussion on some site has potentially questionable keywords in its URL.

  • by zer0defex on 11/6/15, 8:42 AM

    I used to want to visit the UK, not so much anymore... when you find yourself mulling over how best to protect yourself in the same way you'd prep for attending something like defcon, it sort of loses its zeal.

    Edit: wow, the downvotes are coming fast on this one, guess i found a nerve. needle

  • by junto on 11/6/15, 9:56 AM

    What's painfully not funny, is that the vast majority of the British public won't see this as a problem, and won't see any need to do anything about it.

    There is a reason why all the data and calls go through the BT Tower in London, and why it is guarded like a fortress. All the taps are there.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BT_Tower

  • by SturgeonsLaw on 11/6/15, 10:22 AM

    The blatant contempt they have for their people is astounding.

    > The draft bill's measures include:

    > Allowing the security services to hack into phones and computers around the world in the interests of national security

    > A new criminal offence of "knowingly or recklessly obtaining communications data from a telecommunications operator without lawful authority", carrying a prison sentence of up to two years

    In the same breath they threaten prison sentences for doing exactly what they state they're doing.

    > The Wilson doctrine - preventing surveillance of Parliamentarians' communications - to be written into law

    Come on guys, now you're just taking the piss

  • by mst on 11/6/15, 8:38 AM

    That ... would be what MI5 is for. My objections only begin when law enforcement start getting access to spook grade data (which means I'd object to them sharing with the NSA, who're clearly rather permeable to law enforcement currently).

  • by 0xFFC on 11/6/15, 10:05 AM

    Tadaa ... . The surprising fact for me is when I was talking with mostly programmer located in USA in Reddit (I am not from us), they didn't even care about NSA/etc agency collect their data. They act in a way I thought they think their data belongs to NSA. that really got me to thinking. This is my right as human being to have privacy.

  • by mildweed on 11/6/15, 3:48 PM

    Real world events make for such an awful James Bond spoiler.

    http://www.wired.com/2015/11/spectre-james-bond-video-review...

  • by JupiterMoon on 11/6/15, 11:04 AM

    NO worries it'll all be legal soon. If there are any senior ex-Statsi left alive they will be looking at the UK spying systems and wishing they had had this level of access.

  • by tome on 11/6/15, 3:10 PM

    They secretly collected phone data for a decade and nothing untoward seems to have happened! Sounds like the powers that be are reasonably responsible after all.