The guys in charge of regulating the Internet don’t seem to understand how the Internet actually works.

So what’s new, you might ask.

The well-rehearsed Home Office “use-case” is of a girl going missing. The authorities want to be able to see which services she accessed just before disappearing, in the same way that they can track her phone calls.

We Don’t Need No Education

The head of the UK Internet Service Providers’ Association (ISPA), Paul Kennard, had to point out to the Home Office - currently working on the so-called Snoopers’ Charter - that Internet Connection Records are largely meaningless for most modern online services.

Focusing on these shows the Home Office lacks understanding of how the Internet works. If the girl was social media savvy (and who isn’t these days?) she will have downloaded apps like Twitter and Facebook onto her phone.

These keep services tethered to your phone 24/7 when connected via wifi or 4G. In other words, the apps are constantly updating themselves and the connection can last hours or days. These records wouldn’t be of any use to anyone, except maybe to criminals who want to build up a profile of their targets. Handy!

Complicating Matters

Home Secretary Theresa May has been accused of fast-tracking the bill, despite its complexities and the profound impact it will have on privacy. May and the Home Office are keen to spin the Snooper’s Charter into something simple: Internet service providers must log the domains we visit, which would be looked at if we were the subject of an investigation. If this Bill came into force, it would be a powerful one, and not one we should play by lightly.

Lib Dem Lord Strasburger, who is a member of the joint committee tasked with going over the bill, tweeted in November: “Ridiculous. Committee scrutinising massive Investigatory Powers Bill given just two weeks to hear witnesses. Govt turning it into rubber stamp.”

The government, instead of protecting its own citizens, is instead opening up the possibilities of cyber attacks on its population. Again, what else is new?

Image courtesy of alphr.com.