Leaked consultation details UK mass surveillance plans
A leaked consultation belonging to the UK Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2016 describes that communication providers must take technical measures to give ‘near’ real-time access to the communication.
The texts in The Investigatory Powers (Technical Capability) Regulations 2017, published by Open Rights Group, give a little more detail about the UK government’s surveillance plans, as set out in the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2016, which has been in effect in the UK since late December 2016. applies to. The law is also referred to in the British media as the Snooping Charter because of its far-reaching surveillance measures.
The rules in the now published document are aimed at ‘relevant telecommunications operators’, of which it is still unclear how broadly this term is intended. It is assumed that this only concerns the telecom providers, but the RIPA 2016 states that an operator simply means that a ‘telecommunication service’ is offered. In theory, services such as Skype and WhatsApp could also fall under this.
In any case, the document that Open Rights Group publishes states that operators must provide the ability to provide communications and secondary data ‘near real-time’ upon legitimate requests. This seems to indicate that end-to-end encryption is not allowed, but the addition ‘where practicable’ seems to indicate that providers can rely on this.
It is also stated that providers, again ‘where practicable’, must be able to remove the electronic protection that they themselves have applied to the communication. This passage was already in the RIPA 2016 and was already applicable to the RIPA 2000. However, many tech companies are afraid that due to the possibly broader interpretation of ‘telecommunications operators’ they will now have to build in backdoors on request or in other ways decrypt communication. have to make.
The document further states that providers must be able to intercept the communications of up to 1 out of every 10,000 people to whom the services are provided. Also relevant is the passage that providers must take into account the obligations and requirements stated in the document when developing new services and systems.
This is a closed consultation in which relevant parties can give their opinion until 19 May. The British Technical Advisory Board, which includes the six largest telecom providers in the country, has already been able to judge the rules.