The head of MI5 is also concerned that the development of new ways of telephoning over the internet could represent a “significant detriment to national security” and that new powers are needed to tackle the threat. While calls can be monitored, phone bills - which can constitute vital evidence in prosecutions - are not available from internet phone services. “If we are to maintain our capability we are going to have to make decisions in the next few years” he said, “Because traditional ways are unlikely to work.”

Source: The Telegraph

The Home Office has quietly adopted a new plan to allow police across Britain routinely to hack into people’s personal computers without a warrant. The move, which follows a decision by the European Union’s council of ministers in Brussels, has angered civil liberties groups and opposition MPs. They described it as a sinister extension of the surveillance state which drives “a coach and horses” through privacy laws.
…
Richard Clayton, said that remote searches had been possible since 1994, although they were very rare. An amendment to the Computer Misuse Act 1990 made hacking legal if it was authorised and carried out by the state.
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Police might also send an e-mail to a suspect’s computer. The message would include an attachment that contained a virus or “malware”. If the attachment was opened, the remote search facility would be covertly activated. Alternatively, police could park outside a suspect’s home and hack into his or her hard drive using the wireless network.

Source: The Times

Sources also confirmed that Vodafone, along with BT, has signed on for a £1bn IMP pilot project. It’s planned the “black box” data harvesters that the electronic surveillance agency GCHQ wants to deploy throughout the UK communications infastructure will be inserted in Vodafone and BT’s networks initially. A Vodafone spokeswoman said: “We are not involved in any pilot programme.”
The probes would populate a pilot central database with details of who communicates with whom, when and where. The content of communications would not be fed to the database, but storing data about the communications of “people of interest” to law enforcement and the intelligence services, together with the black boxes, then would make wiretaps much easier to implement.

But now, industry sources sceptical about the wisdom and feasibility of IMP said its officials are effectively “fighting for their jobs” ahead of the consultation. When she decided to open a public consultation, Jacqui Smith ordered them to consider all options, including the possibility that no new system will be authorised.

Source: The Register

Hugo Drayton, the UK chief executive of online advertising company Phorm, is to leave at the end of the year in the firm’s second senior management restructure this month.

Source: The Guardian

Jacqui Smith has announced … the government will immediately begin to remove the DNA of children under 10 - the age of responsibility - from the database. … The consultation will address issues including: varying the timescale of detaining DNA evidence depending on the seriousness of the offence and possibly the age and risk of the individual; re-examining the retention arrangements for DNA samples; and ensuring police can retrospectively take samples for a longer period after conviction and from those convicted overseas.
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She also said a consultation will be held on the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (Ripa), covering: a revision of the relevant codes of practice; which public authorities can use Ripa powers; and how those powers are authorised.
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Smith said. “I don’t want to see these powers being used to target people for putting their bins out on the wrong day, for dog fouling offences, or to check whether paper boys are carrying sacks that are too heavy.”

Source: Kable

Norman Lamont is appointed to the Board as a Non-Executive Director. … Steven Heyer, David Dorman, Christopher Lawrence and Virasb Vahidi will step down from the Board with immediate effect. Virasb Vahidi, Chief Operating Officer, will also leave the Company with immediate effect.

Source: RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange

A group of Home Office officials are continuing to work on plans for a giant central database of email, web browsing, phone and mobile location data, even though the laws the government had planned to legitimise it won’t be put to parliament until 2010 at the earliest, and possibly not at all. … Meanwhile a minister implied that the database could be built without any new laws, counter-terrorism minister Vernon Coaker “The results of the public consultation will be used to inform any decisions on the programme’s preferred solution and safeguards and to determine whether future legislation is needed.” … Some £1bn was allocated for early procurement and development in 2007.

Source: The Register

Nicholas Bohm, General Counsel, FIPR:

“My earlier legal analysis shows that the operation of Phorm’s system involves illegal interception, fraud and breach of the data protection principles. Now, with the help of my co-author Joel Harrison, I’ve explained how the system infringes the copyright and database rights of many Internet content providers. These companies have the option to take court action to ensure that Phorm, and the ISPs that use their system, are unable to profit from their illegal actions — Phorm and the ISPs have only one sensible option: to abandon their plans altogether.”

The November 2008 issue of “Computers and Law”, the highly respected publication of the Society for Computers and Law, carries an article by Nicholas Bohm, General Counsel for the Foundation for Information Policy Research (FIPR), and Joel Harrison, an associate at Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP.

The article considers a new set of legal issues that arise from the deployment of “behavioural advertising” systems that provide targeted advertising by snooping on Internet users’ web browsing. In particular, it considers whether the system from Phorm Inc that is currently being tested in the UK by BT under the “Webwise” brand name will infringe the legal rights of intellectual property holders.

Earlier legal analysis by Nicholas Bohm has shown that deployment of the Phorm system amounts to illegal interception of web traffic, contrary to s1 of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000.

The new article explains how the Phorm system will also infringe the database right for some website owners. It further shows that the Phorm system will infringe almost all website owners’ copyright. The way that the Phorm system works means that it will make an infringing copy of the website content; and none of the statutory exceptions in the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 are applicable.

Website owners can take action through the courts to defend their rights. The article explains that this is not mere legal quibbling, since some website owners will suffer actual harm from the Phorm business model. The authors point out that although damages could be awarded for the infringements, an alternative remedy would be for the claimant to go after the profits made from the infringing acts, preventing the ISPs who deploy Phorm from making any money from their illegal systems.

Source: fipr press release

On November 26th 2008 there will be a small protest at the ICO Privacy by Design conference in Manchester.

If you’re in the Manchester area, please come and join us.

The purpose of the event is to leaflet attendees, to highlight plans by BT Group PLC, Virgin Media and Car Phone Warehouse to deploy intrusive technology across their broadband networks for the purpose of profiling the behaviour of their customers, and the private communications with the web sites they use.

Source: No Deep Packet Inspection

Over 19,000 people have signed a petition to the Prime Minister, making it the fifth most popular petition currently open on the Number 10 website.

We petition the Prime Minister to investigate the Phorm technology and if found to breach UK or European privacy laws then ban all ISP’s from adopting it’s use. Additionally the privacy laws should be reviewed to cover any future technologies such as Phorm

Source: E-Petitions on the Number 10 website.