UK Home Secretary Wants Everyone's Metadata; But If You Ask For Hers, Gov't Says You're Being Vexatious
from the funny-how-that-works dept
Theresa May, the UK Home Secretary who seems like a comic book version of a government authoritarian, is leading the charge in the UK for its new Snooper's Charter, officially called the "Investigatory Powers Bill," that is filled with all kinds of nasty stuff for making it easier for the government to spy on everyone. Among the many problematic elements is the demand for basically everyone's metadata. May dismissed the concerns about this by saying it's nothing more than "an itemised phone bill." Given that, Member of Parliament Keith Vaz noted to May that people might be interested to see May's itemized phone bill.Soon after that, we noted that UK resident Chris Gilmour sent in a FOIA request for May's metadata. Specifically, he asked for the following:
1) The date, time, and recipient of every email sent by the Home Secretary during October 2015.Not surprisingly, it appears he was not the only one to do so. UK newspaper The Independent sent in a FOIA request asking for:
2) The date, time, and sender of every email received by the Home Secretary during October 2015.
3) The date, time, and recipient of every internet telephony call (e.g. "Skype" call) made by the Home Secretary during October 2015.
4) The date, time, and sender of every internet telephony call (e.g. "Skype" call) received by the Home Secretary during October 2015.
5) The date, time, and domain address of every website visited by the Home Secretary during October 2015.
... the web browser history of all web browsers on the Home Secretary Theresa May's GSI network account for the week beginning Monday 26 October. Feel free to redact any web addresses relating to security matters."There may be other such requests as well -- but both of these requests got back the same basic response from the UK government. In both cases, the government rejected the requests, claiming they were "vexatious." Here's the response to Gilmour's:
We have considered your requests and we believe them to be vexatious. Section 14(1) of the Act provides that the Home Office is not obliged to comply with a request for information of this nature. We have decided that your request is vexatious because it places an unreasonable burden on the department, because it has adopted a scattergun approach and seems solely designed for the purpose of ‘fishing’ for information without any idea of what might be revealed.It appears that The Independent got an identical response (word for word). The folks at The Independent seem reasonably annoyed by this.
The requests are similar in nature to a request the Home Office received in 2014 that the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) agreed was vexatious. The decision notice in question can be found at this link: https://search.ico.org.uk/ico/search/decisionnotice?keywords=FS50544833
Guidance issued by the ICO on vexatious requests can be found at this link: https://ico.org.uk/media/for-organisations/documents/1198/dealing-with-vexatious- requests.pdf
While the Government is widening its own powers to access the information of citizens, it is watering down the public’s right to access the Government’s information.Either way, there seems to be a legitimate question to ask Theresa May: if there's no big deal about having the government go through your metadata and it's "just like an itemised phone bill," then why is it so "vexatious" for the public to ask for May's metadata?
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Filed Under: data retention, foia, freedom of information, home secretary, investigatory powers bill, ipbill, metadata, public records, snooper's charter, surveillance, theresa may, uk, vexatious
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Ah hypocrisy...
Like the 'unreasonable burden' placed upon any company offering services in the UK, who are forced to gather up and make available to anyone who comes asking data from all of their customers?
Like the 'scattergun approach' of collecting everything possible, just in case it might become relevant at some time in the future?
Forget 'Snooper's Charter', I suggest it instead be called the 'Voyeuristic Hypocrites' Bill', as those pushing for it display both to a truly stunning degree.
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Re: Ah hypocrisy...
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time repeats....
If you can't accept that then well... that is your problem because it will happen if we peasants want it or not. Even if we tried to pick up our forks they would send their knights aka heavily armed police and/or drones to keep the peace.
So I suggest your new workout involves crawling on your knees and bowing.
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Re: time repeats....
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She defends mass, indiscriminate metadata collection by claiming that it's harmless, yet when someone asks for her metadata suddenly that's invasive and unreasonable.
Anyone arguing for indiscriminate collection of private data, 'metadata' or not, especially those that defend the collection by claiming that it's 'harmless', should be forced to hand over their data first. 'Lead by example' as it were, and if they refuse then their proposal is tossed out and their hypocrisy noted.
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I must be above the law to administer it! Now be silent!
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Let's be honest here, a previous question should have been asked (if it hasn't already): if metadata is that 'unimportant' then why the Govt is spending a lot of money after it and a lot of tongues trying to convince everybody it's ok?
Honestly. If it is that innocuous then why all the effort? Because it is NOT that simple (as TD and other places have repeatedly shown).
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If the data isn't personally identifiable, then it's useless to identify criminals/terrorists/communists.
If the data isn't being sifted, sorted, and mined for significant tidbits as it's gathered, then it's useless to prevent anything, and at most can be used to spot what they may have missed after the fact.
The only way the data can be used to identify criminals is if it is possible to link 'metadata' to an individual.
The only way the data can be used in a preventative measure is if it is being combed through when it's gathered, rather than only when they're looking for something specific.
If their claims defending such programs are true, then the programs are useless at their stated goals, and need to be shut down. The only way for the programs to accomplish what they claim they do is if they're lying, in which case the programs need to be shut down.
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Are communists a threat these days? Years ago they were perceived as a threat, with a consequence being Senator McCarthy's 'witch hunt'. Said campaign included scrutiny of one's family, friends, and employer(s). And that was before the idea of metadata retention!
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As the saying goes, 'The more things change...'
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The UK authorities, already Orwellian in 1990, never saw this coming, and it brought down Thatcher's notoriously hard-right-wing government. Since then, governments around the planet have had to tread a careful line between the creative syphoning off of tax revenue to their friends in business, and maintaining a civil order.
This is not always easy, especially at a time you want to down-size your military and police forces...
http://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/622437/George-Osborne-spending-review-UKIP-army-poli ce-budget-cuts
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Obviously this is a tactic that may not work, but it displays both the ridiculousness of such a response involving "vexatious" and double standard at play. If anything, could buy for time before the door is kicked in.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Syjp9lsWBhc
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"ex-commercial PR man, old Etonian", and occasional pig-fucker, David Cameron, would like to bomb Syria"...
and gets over 1.5M views on YouTube, gets a standing ovation from me.
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Technical Observation
On the other hand, there could be purely technical reasons why the request is difficult, maybe impossible to fulfill.
That said, why couldn't someone in Ms. Hays' office work with the requester to narrow the scope of the request?
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Re: Technical Observation
Narrowing the scope defeats the reason for the filing. They want everything, why shouldn't we ask for the same?
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She has nothing to hide
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- scatter gun approach (this is what the Govt is doing)
- the response is plainly vexatious
I wonder what GCHQ has on her?
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Well, if you consider that the current UK Prime Minister, David Cameron, had oral sex with a dead pig, then the scope is extremely broad.
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I wonder if the UK Home Secretary realizes the irony of her position on metadata?
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But....but...but......
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so many things wrong over the last couple of years
Just because you CAN do something, doesnt mean you SHOULD do something
The cameras
The software
The spying
The lying
The warmongering
The empire
The forcing
The manipulation
The disgusting or misguided schemes
The self bias
The superiority
The confidence bordering on the arrogance
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I wrote a script to combat this. They can have fun trying to figure out if I actually visit bestiality sites, proxies, disposable webmails, [...], porn every few minutes.
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UK & Dark Side of the Moon
Don't most aristocrats actually believe they are above us? Aren't most of those working for them told this from the start and forced to believe them? Its a lifelong abysmal form of slavery. That's why the world is all mucked up for us little people.
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You can't spy on me!
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Dransfield Vexatious Decision GI/3037/2011
We now know the ICO has acted as a Tory gatekeeper for the past decade ref the ICO/FOIA laws. The Dransfield Vexatious decision which is the UK Leading Court Precedence was made by a Rogue Judge and is now regularly used as a scapegoat get out of Jail Free card. The Tory's spent thousands of pounds tryingto scuppa the Hungarian NGO Magyar Helsinki Bizottsag and we now know why. The PM TM was at the forfront of all this Vexatious BS and she now would have the word believe she is squeaky clean. The PM position ref the abuse of Vexatious exemptionsis untenable and she MUST resign. Alan M Dransfield The Vexatious King of England
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