[ILUG] 1984 [Fwd: Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act]

[Gerard Gorman]

kevin lyda wrote:
> in other words a lot of normal sysadmin tasks.  which, depending on
> how you look at it, can be invasive of privacy or they are just part of
> keeping a system up.
> 
> kevin

Well it should be clear that the reason that they mention these "normal
tasks" is so that people don't kick up a fuss. Also I think this
argument is in the same league as "what do you have to hide anyway?".
I'm sure you can see how hole's can be picked in that little one. But
dealing with your point more directly, these laws were not called for by
sys-admins, to make their lives more easy. It was brought about by
companies who wanted to make sure that their employees weren't doing
anything that company didn't like (more to the point, companies/colleges
could always snoop on people on their network, but now they can do it
legally).

Couple this with other powers granted to the state last October (the
state can read all your electronic communication and request your
encryption keys (if you refuse or tell anyone you were approached by a
government agency for that information you can face
imprisonment)...interesting developments. Also, MI6 have put in a grant
proposal to log *all* electronic traffic in the uk (yep...it costs a
lot).

It's a crazy world,
g