WIKIORG policy update/2015-w33
This is ORG's Policy Update for the week beginning 07/08/2015
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This is my last Policy update, after having worked for ORG for the last three months. I hope these updates provided you with an helpful weekly summary of news relating to tech, policy and privacy.
This one is unusually short, due to the UK and European Parliaments being on holiday, and people just generally not doing much. The Policy Update will be back mid-September, when news picks up the pace!
Gregoire D.
National Developments
Police Scotland accused of abusing RIPA to investigate on a journalist and find his source
A BBC journalist, Eaman O'Connor, claimed at the beginning of the month that Police Scotland used RIPA (Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000) to snoop on him and identify a “very dependable source” of his, after O'Connor investigated on an unresolved but extremely costly murder investigation. The journalist claims that he has been targeted without judicial approval, despite the changes to the law made in March to further protect journalists and their sources. O'Connor expressed the concern that these practices “intimidate and impede whistleblowers and people who want to come forward to tell the truth about something they believe shouldn't have happened”.
The Sunday Herald revealed on Sunday, August 9th, that First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon was aware of the claims that Police Scotland was abusing its RIPA powers. The Labour Party has asked Nicola Sturgeon to “come clean on her involvement” in this affair, and Labour's justice spokeman Hugh Henry has filed a Freedom of Information request on the matter.
Labour Party members allowed to vote for the leadership by email or on a website
The Labour Party leadership election will be run by the Electoral Reform Services until September 10th. Though ballots will be posted, Labour members will have the possibility to vote online. It is still unclear if this this means voting on a website (as indicated on the official FAQ) or via email (as indicated on an email sent to members). In any case, the implications for the privacy and the security of the voting are potentially serious.
Electronic voting has upsides, as it facilitates voting for people who can't or do not want to go to a voting booth, but NGOs working on promoting on election integrity and tech experts agree that this electoral system endangers ballot secrecy and could compromise the integrity of the results. Hackers have demonstrated how easily they can gain access to and modify the records of some electronic voting systems.
Technology and Internet companies
Windows 10 sends private information to Microsoft even if one sets it to protect privacy
Microsoft's newly launched operative system, Windows 10, has been severely criticised for sharing a lot of private information if you keep the default settings, and the debate probably will not abate now that Ars Technica found out that it keeps sending information to Microsoft servers even if the user sets it to protect their privacy. The website reports on several experiments it conducted but couldn't find out “the exact nature of the information being sent” to various Microsoft servers, and argues that “it's not clear why any data is being sent at all” when one user chooses the most privacy-protective settings and disables cloud services. The machine's unique identification numbers is one of the information being set.
Contacted for comment by The Guardian, Microsoft mentioned the need to keep the machine up to date, but “did not elaborate on what purpose the communications have, or whether it stores or tracks the data”.
ORG Media coverage
See ORG Press Coverage for full details.
- 2015-08-12 – Herald Scotland - Public sector encouraged to move to 'cloud computing' despite hacking fears
- Author: Daniel Sanderson
- Summary: Jim Killock quoted on the possible legal dangers of putting public sectors information on the “cloud”
- 2015-08-11 – Scottish Legal News - IPO proposes extension of maximum jail term for online copyright offences to ten years
- Author:
- Summary: Explain ORG's argument against increasing maximum sentence for copyright infringement to 10 years in jail
- 2015-08-10 – Ars Technica - The UK’s proposed 10-year max jail term for file sharing must be stopped
- Author: Glyn Moody
- Summary: Explain ORG's argument against increasing maximum sentence for copyright infringement to 10 years in jail