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Trade body TechUK and a broad range of stakeholders have issued a joint statement expressing concerns over the Investigatory Powers (Amendment) Bill.
In November 2023, parliament debated the Investigatory Powers (Amendment) Bill (IP(A) Bill). In the briefing the Home Office stated that the number one priority of any government is to keep its citizens and country safe, and this bill seeks to make a set of targeted amendments to the Investigatory Powers Act 2016.
The aim, according to the Home Office, of wanting to amend the law is to “keep pace with a range of evolving threats against a backdrop of accelerating technological advancements”.
Ahead of the IP(A) Bill being debated again in parliament on 25 March, non-profit trade body TechUK has released a joint statement expressing concerns about the bill, which has been dubbed a “snooper’s charter”. The statement has been signed by more than a dozen bodies and individuals predominantly from the tech industry.
In the statement, TechUK said the changes were neither balanced nor proportionate. It believes that citizens’ privacy, security and safety could be put at risk.
It also argued that the IP(A) Bill’s passage through parliament was rushed, limiting opportunities for public engagement and appropriate scrutiny.
The statement said: “Taking the right approach is crucial to maintaining the UK’s international reputation as a jurisdiction that takes a balanced and proportionate approach to regulation that is supported by strong accountability mechanisms.”
According to the trade body, the proposed reforms raise a number of concerns. Some of these include:
- Weakening safeguards when intelligence services collect large amounts of personal data, potentially enabling the harvesting of millions of facial images and social media data.
- Expressly permitting the harvesting and processing of internet connection records for generalised mass surveillance.
- Impeding companies’ ability to advance the data protection efforts expected by users, governments and regulators globally.
- Making the UK the ‘weak link’ in the chain of global online security.
As such, TechUK stresses that the bill needs to be more closely examined. “Our overarching worries remain that the significance of the proposed changes is being downplayed. Therefore, we continue reiterating the critical need for rigorous scrutiny to ensure all concerns are addressed, as is appropriate for a bill with such significant impacts.”
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