UK Government Refuses To Confirm Or Deny If Your Pronunciation Of Its Massive Surveillance Program 'Tempora' Is Correct
from the oh,-come-on,-stop-being-tiresome dept
A few weeks back, we reported that some digital rights groups were challenging GCHQ's spying at the UK's secretive Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT). As Wired UK reports, a first hearing has now taken place, dealing with preliminary matters before the main case in July. Here's one ridiculous problem that had to be addressed:
while the Prism programme has been officially acknowledged, the UK government will not acknowledge the existence of the operation named Tempora, as detailed in the documents released by Edward Snowden. Mr Justice Burton suggested that it might be wise to define the operation in other terms, so that it could be discussed as a factual hypothetical, rather than deal with the inevitable roadblocks that will consistently be encountered if it is called by its code name. Tempora, he said, could be referred to as the "fibre-optic interception programme" for presentational purposes.
This isn't the UK government being purely bloody-minded. By refusing to confirm or deny Tempora's existence, even though there are numerous leaked documents attesting to it, it is trying to persuade the IPT to hold a closed hearing, so as to stop the British public learning anything about what's really going on here. But as the Wired UK report reveals, it's taking this "neither confirm nor deny" policy to absurd lengths:
There was also some jovial discussion in the hearing over the pronunciation of Tempora and whether the emphasis should be on the "Tem" or the "por". When called on to advise as to whether they were pronouncing the code name correctly, government counsel could neither confirm nor deny.
Follow me @glynmoody on Twitter or identi.ca, and +glynmoody on Google+
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: edward snowden, gchq, ipt, prism, privacy, surveillance, tempora, uk
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
I can picture 2 British gentleman discussing in pompous words which term is the correct.
Anyway, just call it what they are. Massive-privacy-violating-totalitarian program.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
comment
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
tempor
The totalitarianism has already taken over
Underneath the wiring.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
At some point there is a need for less opacity in those areas. Especially since they have a vague "threat to national security" leverage no educated people can argue against because of the secrecy surrounding the areas.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Tempora
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Use your noggin
Clearly if the government gave back an explanation on how to pronounce it, they acknowledge creating the name and the associated program.
A great trick though.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Tem Po Rah!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
O
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
British citizens
[ link to this | view in chronology ]