FC: U.K. may order firms to record Net-traffic, ban anon remaiers?

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

It's a little unclear from Statewatch's website what the status of this 
bill is, but I gather it's been introduced in Parliament as recently as 
this week. You can find the text here:
http://www.statewatch.org/news/2001/nov/08terrorbill.htm

Here's the section on data retention:
> The Secretary of State shall issue, and may from time to time revise, a 
> code of practice relating to the retention by communications providers of 
> communications data obtained by or held by them... It shall be the duty of 
> a communications provider to comply with any direction... the Secretary of 
> State may give such directions as he considers appropriate about the 
> retention of communications data (a) to communications providers 
> generally; (b) to communications providers of a description specified in 
> the direction; or (c) to any particular communications providers or provider.

If I may, permit me to pose a question to the U.K. lawyers on this list: 
Does this give the Secretary of State the power to ban anonymous remailers 
operating inside the U.K.? (Or, more precisely, limit their utility by 
requiring record-keeping, identity escrow.) I'm not saying, of course, that 
the secretary would choose to exercise that authority -- at least not right 
away. The question is whether that authority would exist. Seems to me that 
"communications providers" may be defined broadly enough for that to be the 
case.

See also:

"Europe set to nix Bush request, not require ISP data retention"
http://www.politechbot.com/p-02789.html

-Declan

---

From: John Armitage <john.armitage () unn ac uk>
To: "'declan () well com'" <declan () well com>
Subject: UK anti-terrorism proposals & other news from Statewatch
Date: Wed, 14 Nov 2001 16:13:59 -0000

[Declan, no military tribunals in the UK -- yet. But, we are getting 
there... John]
===================================================


Statewatch News Online, 14 November 2001
See: <http://www.statewatch.org/news>

UK ANTI-TERRORISM BILL PUBLISHED

The UK government has published its "Anti-terrorism, crime and
security Bill". For research and information purposes Statewatch
has broken the Bill down below into Sections (with smaller "pdf"
sizes):

1. Immigration and asylum and race and religion (Part 4, Sections
21-42)
2. Police powers, Northern Ireland, MOD and transport police (Part
10, Sections 88-100)
3. Retention of telecommunications data (Part 11, Sections 101-
105)
4. EU Third pillar, Terrorism Act 2000 (Part 13, Sections 109-119)
5. Schedules: these contain additional changes which may be
relevant to above

Analysis of this lengthy Bill will follow.

DEMOCRATIC RIGHTS MUST NOT BECOME THE COLLATERAL
DAMAGE CAUSED BY THE WAR AGAINST TERRORISM

A group of lawyers have drawn up an "Appeal" to the European
Parliament to reject the proposal by the European Commission
which seeks to introduce a binding Framework Decision
introducing a definition of "terrorism" which would seriously
threaten democratic rights and the "freedom of association, the
right to strike and freedom of expression". The "appeal" has
already been signed by 82 lawyers from six countries and is open
to lawyers, organisations and others to sign up to - by sending an
e-mail to: jan.fermon () skynet be

The text of the "appeal" is available in most EU languages.




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