20160609 Kampf gegen das Investigatory Powers Bill

09.06.2016 Kampf gegen das Investigatory Powers Bill

Open Rights Group vs mass surveillance

Open Rights Group has told us about their fight against surveillance laws in Great Britain. This might be interesting für Germans, too. A half year after the terror attacks in France and Belgium several new surveillance laws may be established.

Dear Aktion Freiheit Statt Angst e.V.,

We’d like to thank you for all the work you’ve done so far to challenge
the IPBill. Last night MPs voted in favour of the Investigatory Powers Bill
by 444 to 69. This was disappointing but expected - we know how hard the
Government is trying to push this Bill through.

But thanks to your campaigning, some MPs - particularly Joanna Cherry,
David Davis, Alistair Carmichael and Stephen McPartland - did a great job
in putting the Government under pressure. SNP, Lib Dem and Green MPs voted
against. Many other MPs know that this matters to you, through your emails
and tweets to MPs. And our campaign video, which many of you fund raised
for, brought the Bill to the attention of over 2 million social network
users.

The fight isn’t over. First, the Bill will now be debated in the House of
Lords where they’ll be putting the Bill under more scrutiny. We have more
chance of getting the amendments we’ve been fighting for in the Lords and
we’ll be making them aware of the Bill’s flaws. The Lords have a recent
track record of pushing back on bad legislation.

There are also important court cases coming up that we have intervened in.
In particular, data retention and use of the police search engine called
the “Filter” in the #IPBill could still be wounded by the Davis and
Watson case. In this case, the High Court ruled that parts of the Data
Retention and Investigatory Powers Act (DRIPA) were unlawful.

It is ORG’s arguments on EU law and the applicability of the Digital
Rights Ireland judgment that are making the running.

When Government appealed, the case was referred to the Court of Justice of
the European Union. We made the argument that blanket data retention could
not be necessary and proportionate. The court will clarify how EU law
applies to UK data retention, which will be crucial. We will hear back from
the court this summer, before the Bill finishes in the Lords.

Whatever the government do, we will challenge mass surveillance in the
courts. It is not acceptable to blur the line between legitimate, targeted
surveillance of criminals, and the bulk analysis of whole population data.

Please help us to keep on fighting. Join us
https://www.openrightsgroup.org/join
so we can continue to stand up to mass surveillance, first in the Lords,
then in the courts.

Thanks again for everything,