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A&A ISP boss: ‘Snoopers’ Charter is an opportunity – even though it’s pointless’

A&A ISP boss: 'Snoopers’ Charter is an opportunity - even though it’s pointless'The Communications Data Bill is an opportunity for ISPs ‘to sell services they would rather not have to’ claims the boss of broadband provider Andrews & Arnold.

Adrian Kennard, co-founder of the business ISP, says clients will demand encrypted services which cannot be snooped on by the security services.

Meanwhile, the Snoopers’ Charter – as the Comms Data Bill has become known – will only catch criminals too stupid or ignorant to take simple safeguards over their data.

Blogging as RevK, Kennard said: “Commercially we should welcome this Bill as it allows us to sell such services, but we would rather not have to.

Read Recombu Digital’s report on the Communications Data Bill“We need to make the politicians realise they are wrong. They work for us, not against us. We are not criminals or suspects and have a right to privacy.

“If this goes ahead we’ll have to get a lawyer on staff to help us structure new services that bypass these new laws. 

“We are putting encryption in our FireBricks [A&A’s own-brand router]. We can set up off shore Internet access endpoints via arms length companies. It can be done. We can make a way to provide proper Internet access that is snooper free.”

Kennard highlights four fundamental problems with the Comms Data Bill, which was this week blasted by web security experts in a letter to The Times:

  • This Bill is pointless as it cannot actually stop people avoiding it if they want.
  • This Bill is costly for the tax payer and the estimates seem way off already.
  • This Bill is morally wrong as it is routinely snooping on non criminals.
  • This Bill is a huge invasion of privacy that will be misused in the future.

The Communications Data Bill on paper would give police and security officials the power to monitor the online activities of individuals as well as who they interact with on sites like Facebook and Skype, but not the contents your direct messages or Skype conversations.

UK ISPs would have to keep a log of customers data for 12 months, to be made available to the authorities upon request.

The Communications Data Bill is currently at a draft stage, requiring a rewrite and subsequent presentation to Parliament before the long process of it becoming official British law begins.

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