Archive for interception of communications commissioner
An open letter to Jeremy Browne MP…Part 2: Problems at the Home Office
Dear Jeremy, In part 1 I explained why the Interception of Communications Commissioner is a failed regulator and one the Home Office should be fixing, yet your civil servants have been reluctant to do so. That should give a pause for thought about the proposals Home Office civil servants keep on pushing to extend the [...]
An open letter to Jeremy Browne MP on civil liberties… Part 1: The failed regulator
Dear Jeremy I doubt that in amongst all the ludicrously large number of issues that pass across the desk of a minister, and a Home Office one no less, you will have noticed a small victory I scored over the Home Office recently. But I hope you’ll give a pause for thought to the implications [...]
Oh dear. Interception of Communications Commissioner does it again
I’ve blogged just once or twice or thrice about the many failings of the Interception of Communications Commissioner and his dreadful record, failing to ask the right questions, unwilling to investigate evidence of widespread abuses and ignoring questions over cost. And now he’s spoken out over the highly controversial Draft Communications Data Bill – not [...]
Anthony May appointed as new Interception of Communications Commissioner
My all-time favourite regulator is to get a new head from 1 January 2013. Downing Street has announced that The Right Honourable Sir Anthony May will be the new Interception of Communications Commissioner. As his full title suggests, this is hardly the appointment of an outsider to the post. His background may be very, very [...]
Information Commissioner sounds warning over Draft Communications Data Bill
An important intervention today in the debate over the Draft Communications Data Bill. The Information Commissioner has issued a strongly-worded warning about its impact if implemented: Plans to monitor all Britons’ online activity risk uncovering “incompetent criminals and accidental anarchists” rather than serious offenders, the information commissioner has warned… Christopher Graham said the “really scary [...]
James Brokenshire’s assurances on the snooping bill only raise further concerns
What do you do if a regulator has failed? Leave them unreformed and instead give them greater powers? That is the line Home Office Minister James Brokenshire is arguing. The regulator in question is the Interception of Communications Commissioner and the powers relate to online monitoring. For the Draft Communications Data Bill would not only give [...]
Two people wrongly detained after communications interception errors
For the last decade and more, the publication of the Interception of Communication Commissioner’s Annual Reports has gone largely unremarked, even when they have contained news of copious errors or news (by omission) of a Commissioner not investigating evidence of widespread breaking of the rules he is meant to oversee (see my previous posts). This [...]
Why doesn’t Theresa May want mandatory tracking of all cars?
Because it is an absurd idea may well be your answer to that question even before you’ve reached the end of it. But bear with me a moment. Imagine a government policy to have mandatory tracking devices in all motor vehicles, which would record all the journeys and store the data. The data would normally [...]
Draft Communications Data Bill: working through the clauses
I’ve written extensively about the wider issues around the Draft Communications Data Bill already, but in this post I’m collecting some of my thoughts on the details of its individual clauses. My view of the more general perspective is summed up in Walking: it’s time to take action on this major terrorist threat. By all [...]
An 8th reason why the Interception of Communications Commissioner should go
I’ve previously blogged about the catastrophic failure of the Interception of Communications Commissioner, giving seven different failures, any one of which would be damning but cumulatively make the post a good entrant for ‘most failed regulator’. They included such failures as ignoring warning signs of widespread law breaking: And finally, and perhaps most damningly once [...]
