ISPreview Study Finds UK People Oppose New Internet Snooping Law
A new ISPreview.co.uk survey of 1107 internet users in the United Kingdom has claimed that 73% do not want the government to start logging their access to social networking websites (Facebook, Twitter etc.) or Skype, with 63.5% being concerned that to do so would constitute an "abuse" of their privacy.
London, United Kingdom, June 27, 2012 --(PR.com)-- A new web-based survey of 1107 ISPreview.co.uk readers in the United Kingdom has claimed that 73% are opposed to new government plans that would expand existing internet snooping laws to log a much bigger slice of everybody's online activity (e.g. Skype, website URLs and Facebook access etc.); regardless of whether or not you ever committed a crime.
The current Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA) and EU Data Retention Directive already requires ISPs to maintain a log of their customers internet website and email accesses (times, dates and IP addresses) for 12 months (this does not include the content of your communication), which is only accessible via a warrant.
Respondents to the ISPreview.co.uk study were also asked about their "biggest concern", which revealed that the majority (63.5%) of readers were most worried about abuse of their privacy. Meanwhile 17% felt that the criminals / terrorists would be able to avoid the logging, such as by using an encrypted VPN (usually used for remote working), and only 2.9% had no concerns at all.
What is your biggest concern about such logs?
Abuse of my privacy - 63.5%
Criminals can avoid it - 17.3%
Security of the database - 12.5%
Too costly (GBP1.8bn) - 3.6%
I have no concerns - 2.9%
"The UK government's £1.8bn scheme to expand its controversial internet snooping law does have some merit," said ISPreview.co.uk's Founder, Mark Jackson. "Internet crime remains a huge problem, as is terrorism, although clearly this needs to be balanced against the legitimate concern of innocent internet users."
"Internet providers could also face huge costs to introduce the system, which risks pushing up the price of broadband for everybody. Meanwhile the true criminals already have the tools to circumnavigate these rules (VPN, Proxy Servers etc.) and will continue to go undetected. The huge new ISP-managed databases also risk becoming a tempting targets for hackers," added Jackson.
The current Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA) and EU Data Retention Directive already requires ISPs to maintain a log of their customers internet website and email accesses (times, dates and IP addresses) for 12 months (this does not include the content of your communication), which is only accessible via a warrant.
Respondents to the ISPreview.co.uk study were also asked about their "biggest concern", which revealed that the majority (63.5%) of readers were most worried about abuse of their privacy. Meanwhile 17% felt that the criminals / terrorists would be able to avoid the logging, such as by using an encrypted VPN (usually used for remote working), and only 2.9% had no concerns at all.
What is your biggest concern about such logs?
Abuse of my privacy - 63.5%
Criminals can avoid it - 17.3%
Security of the database - 12.5%
Too costly (GBP1.8bn) - 3.6%
I have no concerns - 2.9%
"The UK government's £1.8bn scheme to expand its controversial internet snooping law does have some merit," said ISPreview.co.uk's Founder, Mark Jackson. "Internet crime remains a huge problem, as is terrorism, although clearly this needs to be balanced against the legitimate concern of innocent internet users."
"Internet providers could also face huge costs to introduce the system, which risks pushing up the price of broadband for everybody. Meanwhile the true criminals already have the tools to circumnavigate these rules (VPN, Proxy Servers etc.) and will continue to go undetected. The huge new ISP-managed databases also risk becoming a tempting targets for hackers," added Jackson.
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ISPreview.co.uk
Mark Jackson
440163278234
www.ispreview.co.uk
Mark Jackson
440163278234
www.ispreview.co.uk
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