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British MPs’ private emails are routinely accessed by GCHQ

computerweekly.com

11–20 of 71 posts

Re: British MPs’ private emails are routinely accessed by GCHQ

#11

This coming to light is a good thing, because the MPs will finally be scared enough to do something pro-privacy and stop all the anti-encryption nonsense.

As said by an MP in the article, the solution is simply to add special protections for politicians.

Re: British MPs’ private emails are routinely accessed by GCHQ

#14
post #3

The British are so strange. This kind of abuse of power would never be contemplated by American authorities.

As a Brit who finds this sort of thing completely scary/abhorrent, I often wonder what it is about our culture that makes this so. I think a big part of it is the class-system, which has its roots in feudal structures from millennia past, and is still very much alive and well today. We all grow up to develop an innate sense of class (I look up to him, I look down on him etc.), and for the majority of people, they do…

As a fellow Brit, I find your ability to appreciate sarcasm lacking :)

Re: British MPs’ private emails are routinely accessed by GCHQ

#16
post #3

The British are so strange. This kind of abuse of power would never be contemplated by American authorities.

As a Brit who finds this sort of thing completely scary/abhorrent, I often wonder what it is about our culture that makes this so. I think a big part of it is the class-system, which has its roots in feudal structures from millennia past, and is still very much alive and well today. We all grow up to develop an innate sense of class (I look up to him, I look down on him etc.), and for the majority of people, they do…

The UK has never had to deal with a truly oppressive government, at least not within anything like living memory.

There's also the problem that nobody outside of the software engineering community really understands what the tech can do, or what GCHQ is capable of. My mother's primary comment on the whole thing was, "well we're much too boring to spy on" and that's a sentiment you see a lot. It reflects a misunderstanding of how cheap it is to create robotic law enforcement on top of the 5-eyes infrastructure.

Re: British MPs’ private emails are routinely accessed by GCHQ

#17
post #3

The British are so strange. This kind of abuse of power would never be contemplated by American authorities.

As a Brit who finds this sort of thing completely scary/abhorrent, I often wonder what it is about our culture that makes this so. I think a big part of it is the class-system, which has its roots in feudal structures from millennia past, and is still very much alive and well today. We all grow up to develop an innate sense of class (I look up to him, I look down on him etc.), and for the majority of people, they do…

This was news about a year ago. I presume it's in Computer Weekly because the current bill is trying to close some gaps in the Wilson doctrine that were exposed at the time.

Re: British MPs’ private emails are routinely accessed by GCHQ

#18
post #3

The British are so strange. This kind of abuse of power would never be contemplated by American authorities.

As a Brit who finds this sort of thing completely scary/abhorrent, I often wonder what it is about our culture that makes this so. I think a big part of it is the class-system, which has its roots in feudal structures from millennia past, and is still very much alive and well today. We all grow up to develop an innate sense of class (I look up to him, I look down on him etc.), and for the majority of people, they do…

> Also, I'm assuming there's an injunction out about this - can't find it reported anywhere in the UK press.

Does this actually reveal anything new? It was previously known that GCHQ were logging email messages, and MPs use email. The story does not suggest that MPs email are exposed to greater scrutiny.

The headline in every paper should be "Government fails to use email encryption". If the email is not encrypted it could be read by foreign governments, criminals, or the tabloid press. Implying that an email is less secure because it travels outside the UK is ridiculous. It was never secure in the first place!

Re: British MPs’ private emails are routinely accessed by GCHQ

#19
What, you don't remember that time when they said "when privacy violations happen, it is not an “active intrusion” because the analyst reading or listening to an individual’s communication will inevitably forget about it anyway"?

That's oversight you can take to the bank!

Re: British MPs’ private emails are routinely accessed by GCHQ

#20
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a Brit who finds this sort of thing completely scary/abhorrent, I often wonder what it is about our culture that makes this so. I think a big part of it is the class-system, which has its roots in feudal structures from millennia past, and is still very much alive and well today. We all grow up to develop an innate sense of class (I look up to him, I look down on him etc.), and for the majority of people, they do…

The UK has never had to deal with a truly oppressive government, at least not within anything like living memory. There's also the problem that nobody outside of the software engineering community really understands what the tech can do, or what GCHQ is capable of. My mother's primary comment on the whole thing was, "well we're much too boring to spy on" and that's a sentiment you see a lot. It reflects a misundersta…

> "well we're much too boring to spy on"

Have you asked her why her government feels that it is necessary to spy on her if she is so boring?

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