The Guardian published a piece entitled “Revealed: British councils used RIPA to secretly spy on public“, on Christmas Day at 7pm, a time that almost no-one reads news, you may have missed it.
For those unaware of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000
or RIPA as mentioned in this article, the laws were passed in July 2000
and updated in 2003, 2010 and 2015. (Read the legislation.gov.uk page HERE)
Its primary purpose is: “In the interests of national security,
for the purpose of preventing or detecting serious crime and for the
purpose of safeguarding the economic well-being of the United Kingdom.” The Act specifically covers activities as follows:
Interception of communication
Use of communications data
Directed surveillance (covert surveillance conducted for the purposes of a specific investigation or operation)
Covert human intelligence sources (establishes or maintains a covert personal or other relationship)
Intrusive surveillance (covert surveillance taking place on residential premises or in any private vehicle)
Most people are aware that the first two reasons of the Act allows
surveillance of literally everyone. The British people seem to have
fully accepted this without contest. The last three of these primary
reasons for the Act are for surveillance operations required for
“preventing or detecting serious crime” – right? Wrong!
