IP: ISPI Clips 4.25:UK Police May Soon Tap Your Email & Internet Use At Will

["Vladimir Z. Nuri" <vznuri@netcom.com>]

From: "ama-gi ISPI" <offshore@email.msn.com>
Subject: IP: ISPI Clips 4.25:UK Police May Soon Tap Your Email & Internet Use At Will
Date: Tue, 8 Sep 1998 01:16:50 -0700
To: <Undisclosed.Recipients@majordomo.pobox.com>

ISPI Clips 4.25:UK Police May Soon Tap Your Email & Internet Use At Will
News & Info from the Institute for the Study of Privacy Issues (ISPI)
Tuesday September 8, 1998
ISPI4Privacy@ama-gi.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This From: The Independent Network, Monday September 7, 1998
http://www.independent.co.uk

The PC in your mailbox:
The police may soon be allowed to read your email and check your Internet
use at will.
http://www.independent.co.uk/net/980907ne/index.html

By
Paul Lavin

When you drop an envelope in a red pillar-box, you walk away confident that
your mail will not be read by anyone except the addressee. However, when
you send an email, it might be wise to reflect on the differences.

According to the organisation Internet Freedom, an agreement being
negotiated between the UK's internet service providers (ISPs) and the
police will open the email of the UK's eight million Internet users to
scrutiny without debate in Parliament or oversight by the courts or the
Home Secretary.

British police are said to be close to reaching an agreement with ISPs that
will enable them to monitor customers' emails and web usage logs. Chris
Ellison of Internet Freedom, says: "Following a series of meetings between
the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) and Internet industry
representatives, we understand that both groups have stated a willingness
to reach a 'memorandum of understanding' about implementing police access
to private data held by ISPs."

According to David Kennedy, chairman of the Internet Service Providers
Association, that is a serious overstatement of the discussions. However,
he admits that the UK's ISPs are trying to avoid being flooded by court
orders or having the police cart off critical servers for evidence. He
says: "We are talking to law enforcement representatives to find a way to
work with them within the legal framework that exists. All members of our
association take the view that emails are private."

As with the understanding between the Metropolitan Police and the ISPs over
"banned" Usenet newsgroups and the closing down of web sites that may
breach the law, the significance of such an agreement is that any such
police activity may not be subjected to judicial review or legal
constraint. Detective Chief Superintendent Keith Ackerman, chairman of the
ACPO's computing crimes sub-committee, says: "We want to ensure the
criminal doesn't take best advantage of the Internet, without requiring the
Government to use the sledgehammer of regulation. However, we are not
looking for the ability to go on fishing expeditions."

The ISPs know that they are stuck in the middle, according to Keith
Mitchell, chairman of Linx, a partnership of large ISPs. He says: "To
divulge private email even under duress would be commercial suicide for an
ISP. In some circumstances it would constitute a crime."

Nonetheless, mistakes happen and there are well-known cases where the
police have been persuasive. Mitchell says: "The current laws do not
adequately protect ISPs or private individuals. We will be active in
seeking responsive changes from Parliament."

While there are undoubtedly individuals who use the Internet's email and
worldwide web for nefarious purposes, the vast majority of people who use
email and the web for personal and business communications have an
expectation of privacy. And law-abiding citizens who wholeheartedly support
the goals of law enforcement agencies may nevertheless feel uneasy about
giving them carte blanche over email.

America Online has been quite vocal in its opposition to opening the doors
to the police short of a court order. Many ISPs agree. Julie Hatch,
marketing communications director of Easynet, says:"We do not allow anyone
to access our customers' email without a court order.

"It makes no difference if it is an estranged wife or a suspicious business
partner or anyone else, we would not divulge a subscriber's private email
unless we were presented with a court order. This is in accordance with our
terms and conditions.

"Our business is also subject to restrictions imposed by the Data
Protection Act (DPA), and in any situation we would certainly abide by
those rules. So unless a subscriber's actions are illegal, you can say that
email is confidential."

The DPA provides scanty protection to email users, however.

While the Act has aspects that protect the quality and use of information
held in computer systems, disclosure can be afforded by a compliant ISP by
simply including appropriate language in the small print of their terms and
conditions. Data may be revealed to law enforcement officials as long as
the subscriber is notified.

Easynet's assurances highlight the differences between ISPs that are
classified as telecoms providers, protected from feeling the long arm of
the law by a regulatory framework, and those that are merely private
businesses unaccountable to anyone but their owners and governed solely by
their contracts with subscribers.

As well as Easynet, UK ISPs that are regulated as telecoms providers
include BT Internet and Demon, which is now part of Scottish Telecom.

Smaller ISPs are more vulnerable to the persuasive demands of the
police.They have no legally protected right of privacy and any redress for
email disclosure would only be for breach of contract.

Furthermore, most ISPs now include in their terms and conditions a
requirement that the subscriber bear the expense of any legal costs
resulting from their use of the service. This could lead to a complaining
subscriber having to bear the costs of both sides of a lawsuit against an
ISP even if they won.

The most serious aspect of this potential agreement between the police and
ISPS is, according to critics, the absence of legal safeguards. In order to
tap telephones, the police need the permission of the Home Secretary and
must justify violating the privacy of a suspect. It is not clear from the
law whether tapping a telephone and tapping into an email exchange are the
same thing.

Chris Ellison says: "This is what is so dangerous about the new culture of
private regulation and moral responsibility. ISPs now operate in a moral
climate which insists on limitations for freedom of speech. Any material
that causes offence - especially to children and ethnic minorities - is
regularly removed. ISPs have now embraced this self-censorship credo and
are willing to set themselves up as moral arbiters of internet content,
filtering out anything that they feel may be illegal."

Without public debate or scrutiny by Parliament, the police are likely to
gain, as Liz Parratt from the organisation Liberty puts it, "a snoopers'
charter for the Internet". Ordinary users will have little legal protection
or redress against police monitoring of their communications. This trend
could render the Internet less private and more regulated than any other
communications medium.

"If nothing else, these discussions have demonstrated what self-regulation
really means: ISPs undertaking the role of publicly unaccountable
instruments of law enforcement."

Email is not like a letter in an envelope; it is more like a postcard. Just
as you would not put some messages on a postcard, you should think before
you use email for your most private communications. While the legality and
desirability of the any agreement between ACPO and the ISPs is highly
debatable, anyone interested in maintaining their privacy on the Internet
must take responsibility for their own actions.

The agreement between ACPO and ISPs will be the subject of three seminars:
22 September in Edinburgh, 8 October in London and 27 October in
Manchester. Additional details can be found at
http://www.linx.net/misc/acposeminar.html .


--------------------------------NOTICE:------------------------------
ISPI Clips are news & opinion articles on privacy issues from
all points of view; they are clipped from local, national and international
newspapers, journals and magazines, etc. Inclusion as an ISPI Clip
does not necessarily reflect an endorsement of the content or opinion
by ISPI. In compliance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is
distributed free without profit or payment for non-profit research
and educational purposes only.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

ISPI Clips is a FREE e-mail service from the "Institute for the Study
of Privacy Issues" (ISPI). To receive "ISPI Clips" on a daily bases
(approx. 4 - 8 clips per day) send the following message  "Please
enter [Your Name] into the ISPI Clips list: [Your e-mail address]" to:
ISPIClips@ama-gi.com  .

The Institute for the Study of Privacy Issues (ISPI) is a small
contributor-funded organization based in Victoria, British Columbia
(Canada). ISPI operates on a not-for-profit basis, accepts no
government funding and takes a global perspective.

ISPI's mandate is to conduct & promote interdisciplinary research
into electronic, personal and  financial privacy with a view toward
helping ordinary people understand the degree of privacy they have
with respect to government, industry and each other and to likewise
inform them about techniques to enhance their privacy.

But, none of this can be accomplished without your kind and
generous financial support. If you value in the ISPI Clips service or if
you are concerned about the erosion of your privacy in general, won't
you please help us continue this important work by becoming an "ISPI
Clips Supporter" or by taking out an institute Membership?

We gratefully accept all contributions:

  Less than $60    ISPI Clips Supporter
          $60 - $99    Primary ISPI Membership (1 year)
      $100 - $300    Senior ISPI Membership (2 years)
More than $300    Executive Council Membership (life)

Your ISPI "membership" contribution entitles you to receive "The ISPI
Privacy Reporter" (our bi-monthly 12 page hard-copy newsletter in
multi-contributor format) for the duration of your membership.

For a contribution form with postal instructions please send the following
message "ISPI Contribution Form" to ISPI4Privacy@ama-gi.com .

We maintain a strict privacy policy. Any information you divulge to ISPI
is kept in strict confidence. It will not be sold, lent or given away to
any third party.














































**********************************************
To subscribe or unsubscribe, email:
     majordomo@majordomo.pobox.com
with the message:
     (un)subscribe ignition-point email@address
**********************************************
www.telepath.com/believer
**********************************************