Website campaign to derail legislation

Watch what you type: Campaigners say law will hit innocent

A pressure group is warning MPs to prepare to be hit by a campaign-by-website as protests grow against a Bill to regulate and intercept communication over the internet.

Stand.org.uk, comprising e-commerce entrepreneurs and new media thinkers, say that the public has sent more than 1,500 faxes from its website to MPs within two weeks of the launch of their new campaign against the bill.

They say innocent people could be jailed by the legislation if they cannot remember a password or have lost an e-mail.

The government says it needs new powers to fight organised crime on the internet and the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Bill will allow public bodies to demand access to electronically transferred information.

Fighting crime

But while telephone companies can easily tap a line, intercepting internet-transmitted data is far more difficult because service providers only act as a conduit as the sender and the receiver hold the "encryption keys" needed to decode information.

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Campaigners say that the Bill's demands for access to personal encryption keys, an increasingly routine tool of e-commerce, are so draconian that people could face jail if they lose or forget a password demanded by the police.

But despite heading for its third and final reading in the House of Commons, the Bill is facing a growing campaign from the UK's internet professionals.

Fax campaign

Stand.org.uk, campaigning against the Bill, is calling on the public to fax their MPs direct from its website to register their opposition to the Bill.

Stefan Magdalinski, of Upmystreet.com and member of Stand, urged MPs to act against the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Bill.

"We have already been having a great response from the MPs who have been receiving faxes from our website," he said.

"I think that we are getting through to them to some extent what the implications of this legislation are."

E-commerce implications

Mr Magdalinski warned that e-commerce could only flourish if all parties were confident in the security of their transactions .

"This Bill would place serious additional burdens on e-commerce," he said.

"Many companies would consider siting the major part of their operation in countries which have already rejected this legislation.

Caspar Bowden, director of the Foundation for Information Policy Research, said that legal advice indicated that the Bill contravened in-coming human rights legislation.

"Because this law reverses the burden of proof, you will have to prove that you have lost a key," he said.

"Well you can't prove a negative and that contravenes the Human Rights Act."

"This is like taking a blunderbuss and mowing down the innocent while trying to get the guilty."