And another policy while we wait: a Digital Bill of Rights – and a sensible change of tack from the party

With the Liberal Democrat pre-manifesto publication delayed until Monday (due to international events and meetings clashing with the original launch planned for last week), the party has kept the policy proposal production line chugging along. Today it’s the proposal for a Digital Bill of Rights:

A Digital Bill of Rights to protect people’s privacy and give them more control over their data online would be introduced as part of a Liberal Democrat manifesto for the next election.

The plans also include outlawing ‘revenge porn’ and the posting of intimate or pornographic photographs of a person without their consent…

Liberal Democrat Home Affairs spokesman Julian Huppert said:

“The Liberal Democrats are committed to a free, fair, and open society where civil liberties are safeguarded as well as ensuring we protect our country.

“The Digital Bill of Rights we are proposing will protect our fundamental liberties online. They mean that British residents will be protected from unwarranted state surveillance, while still maintaining the ability for our security services to deal with serious threats.

“Protecting people’s privacy is an essential part of building the society we want to live in, and when people violate that, there have to be proportionate powers available to hold those responsible to account.”

As The Independent adds:

The Lib Dems believe a digital bill of rights is needed to protect people’s privacy and give them more control over their personal data. Within these rights would be an assurance that police and security service surveillance powers could not be increased without parliamentary approval.

The party is running a consultation on what should go into the Digital Bill of Rights, which you can take part in here [link now defunct].

One other sentence from the party’s announcement is worth noting:

The new policy will be voted on at the Liberal Democrats’ Autumn Conference and would establish rights for British residents in the digital environment.

That makes much more explicit than some of the other announcements that this is a proposal yet to be voted on by party conference in Glasgow rather than a done deal. That’s a welcome change of tack in the wording of such announcements. It’s not a surprise if the media sometimes turns ‘proposal yet to be voted on’ into ‘new policy’. But the party’s own pronouncements should always be clear on this – and if they aren’t, what’s the chance of the media getting it right?

When finally published, the pre-manifesto document will get debated at the Liberal Democrat conference in Glasgow this October. Nick Clegg’s foreword to that document, along with some of its highlights, was published last weekend. You can take a look at my archive of policy posts to see the proposals recently launched that will feature in it.