RSS
Norwegian Security Service Wants Details Of Citizens' Web Comments Retained For Six Months
from the anything-else? dept
Governments around the world are seeking to monitor more and more of their citizens' online activities -- and it's not just the most obviously repressive regimes doing this. In the US, there is CISPA, while the UK is drawing up the Communications Capability Development Programme. Thomas Steen alerts us to a further escalation of this desire to spy on the public, in Norway. The secret service there (known by the acronym PST) want details about comments posted on all Web sites retained (via Google Translate):
"This will make it possible to identify which IP address to publish a given post at a particular time," writes PST letter also signed the acting chief Roger Berg.
The current requirement is to store information detailing where, when, how and with whom Norwegians communicate using the phone, mobile or e-mail. The latest proposal would be a major extension to that, since it would require data about highly personal content to be stored. Here's how the PST would access that information:
If it becomes subject to compulsory saving for six months, it will mean that the district court, upon request from the PST, may require that those who have online discussion must submit the information about who wrote a given post and when it was done.
Aside from that retrospective approval for data grabs, the other worrying aspect of this proposal from the Norwegian secret service is that, if implemented, it would establish a precedent that other countries may seek to follow.
In addition, prosecutors called a "rush of competence" in cases where data is needed very quickly. Then the police and PST require data directly from the supplier, but as the court approve it afterwards.
Follow me @glynmoody on Twitter or identi.ca, and on Google+
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
What are our governments afraid of?
[ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]
[ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]
I think that it's time
Let's get on it people. :-)
[ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: I think that it's time
[ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]
[ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]
[ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]
So what PST is doing here is making a request to this authority (PT) to extend the obligation to retain data. And it's not just internet communities and chats either. PST wants to extend the obligation to IP-adress data to internet cafés and it wants ISPs that use NAT to store the URLs that people access.
Btw. in Sweden the police requested that the geographical position of people who make a mobile phone call should be registered every minute to track the movement of the person. Thankfully the government disagreed and the data is now to be stored "only" at the start and end of the phone call. We can only hope that this PST request ends up being rejected too. I think that's quite likely since the EU data retention directive introduces no obligations for providers of services over the internet (eg. webmail, IP-telephony, etc) unless they are offered by a company that also provides internet access or physical network infrastructure. So internet communities and such are not covered and although the PST seems to pretend otherwise it should be clear to most people that this is a quite massive extension of what the directive says.
But who knows what happens in the future.
[ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]
A. No, it won't.
B. Even if it did, it won't reliably identify which computer was at that address.
C. Even if it did, it won't reliably identify which person was sitting at that computer.
D. Even if it did, it won't reliably identify who's responsible for that post.
It continues to boggle my mind (although by now it probably shouldn't) that legislators, politicians, judges, lawyers, pundits, and even some IT people are not FULLY aware of the bot/zombie epidemic, of its scope, and of the direct impact of that on issues just like this one. We're now (roughly) a decade into it; there are thousands of articles, blog posts and research papers about it; it's the single largest security problem (by size) on the Internet; and yet these idiots are either (a) blissfully unaware of it or (b) pretending it doesn't exist.
There are days that I think I should just skip the coffee and go straight to scotch.
[ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Reminds me about the days of SOPA when I was thinking that if it passed we would see a new type of attack aimed at your competition. Instead of taking their websites down just post some infringing material and then stand aside and watch your competition being dragged into court for copyright violation.
Considering that SOPA proposed that all services to the infringing website should bee blocked from day one your competition sized to exist.
Ah... the beauty of it. Too bad some idiots started protesting against it. They clearly did not see the posibilities :))
[ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Please note that PST may not be interested in the data for the purpose of prosecution but for further investigations. I wouldn't rule out that it might be useful in some cases, but it's still a totally unbalanced proposal that restricts basic human rights in an unacceptable way.
[ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]
It's time to set EVERYTHING to be encrypted by default: emails, text messages, phone calls, etc.
We can no longer trust that no one else isn't listening on our conversations.
[ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
It's a sad day when law-abiding citizens are forced into hiding their activities.
[ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]
Commenting is difficult enough already.
And all to get on a page that states "999 comments, here are 3". Oh, did you want to see more? OK, here are a few more and some additional ads. And long comments require clicking on "more" to make sense of the post. You wonder if the cops will get the short version or the long one.
This site is commended for avoiding all the above nuisances.
[ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]
[ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]
The Big Bad Wolf
My,what big ears you have! All the better to hear you with.
My,what big teeth you have!.....
It seems that the Big Bad Wolf is alive after all!
Now you know where our politicians get their ideas!
[ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]
[ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
You don't go to an sports event expecting to see the referee takeing part, except to give an impartial decision on something both parties are willing to accept
You don't expect a referee to tell a football player that he can't kick a ball a certain way because of ........................terrorists.......pshh
[ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]
Benjamin Franklin
[ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]
Of course, my divorce lawyer said that maybe I shouldn't have trusted her with all those passwords!
I don't see how the government knowing all this stuff (and they do now) could be any worse!
[ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Hardly the point is it?
[ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
I'm not really trying to make a point.Was I supposed to?
Perhaps you could lets all know what the point is!
[ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]
Internet informs the masses
Governments fear the Internet
I covered this already.
[ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]
Internet informs the masses
Governments fear the Internet
I covered this already.
[ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]
Internet informs the masses
Governments fear the Internet
I covered this already.
[ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]
Internet informs the masses
Governments fear the Internet
I covered this already.
[ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]
Internet informs the masses
Governments fear the Internet
I covered this already.
[ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
We noticed.
[ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
[ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]
Goldmine
It's a GODDAMN GOLDMINE for them...
[ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]
Go ahead, save this
[ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]
[ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]
Not only that, but...
When stuff like Utøya happens, people get scared and start calling for initiatives like this. They even mention Breivik in the article. Not that I agree this is a good idea but perhaps it can explain a bit why stuff like this is proposed.
[ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]
Hate speech and data retention
Any argument for data retention in relation to crime prosecution must take in to account the extend to which the state already bans speech..
The more speech is illegal, the greater the benefit of data retention.
[ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]
200 years and out
Smaller government was again rejected in the USA, as seems to be the case in other countries.
Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.
[ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]
FULL OF FUN
[ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]
Security Services
[ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]
Add Your Comment