[Infowarrior] - UK's Snooper's Charter Hands Over Access To User Data To Several Non-Law Enforcement Agencies

[Richard Forno]

UK's Snooper's Charter Hands Over Access To User Data To Several Non-Law Enforcement Agencies

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Despite the parade of child-murdering, drug-dealing, criminal-masterminding horrors that serve as slightly-less-dry interludes to the bill's text, access to "all" retained data will be provided to a long list of mundane regulatory agencies, presumably for the sake of the children.

	• Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs
	• Department for Transport
	• Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment in Northern Ireland
	• A fire and rescue authority under the Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004
	• Food Standards Agency
	• Gambling Commission
	• Gangmasters Licensing Authority
	• Health and Safety Executive
	• National Health Service Business Services Authority
	• Duty Manager of Ambulance Trust Control Rooms
	• Northern Ireland Ambulance Service Health and Social Care Trust
	• Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service Board

Most of these agencies are granted access to all "communications data." The justification for this is laid out in the table starting on page 210 of the pdf, with most of these agencies utilizing Section 46(7)(b) ("for the purpose of preventing or detecting a crime or of preventing disorder"). 

But the bill contains several other justifications for the obtaining of user data, not all of which seem severe enough to warrant special legislation -- like "collecting any tax, duty, levy or other imposition" or "exercising functions relating to financial stability." 

Not exactly the terrorist-hunting, child kidnapper-finding wonderbill it's being depicted as -- often in its own pages.

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https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20151126/07415632909/uks-snoopers-charter-hands-over-access-to-user-data-to-several-non-law-enforcement-agencies.shtml

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