TSA lock. Wikimedia Commons/RudolfSimon. Some rights reserved.David Cameron is continuing with his quest to ensure that UK security services can read any message online. And he has been quite clear on this. At the beginning of 2015, he rejected the idea that we should “allow a means of communication between people which we cannot read”.
The latest push for more powers came yesterday morning from Andrew Parker, the MI5 director general, who gave a Radio 4 interview to argue the case for more access to information. It is notable that when the home affairs select committee, on which I used to serve, wanted to question him, that was refused. A cynic would suggest that the home secretary wanted to use his media interviews for good PR purposes, rather than to actually answer challenging questions. Parker has argued that internet companies should pass information on to the UK security services about communications that might cause concern. Of course, this is far more easily said than done, and too much poor quality information can also be a huge problem. The security services were aware of Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale before they murdered Lee Rigby in Woolwich, but failed to act on the information. Shutterstock/Zsolt Biczo. All rights reserved.It is also hard to see how we reach an agreement that says these conversations should be provided from US companies to the UK when we say it might be concerning to the state, but not also allow such information to be provided to Russia or China, when they allege wrongdoing.
Banning encryption means banning security.
