UK: Liberty poll finds widespread ignorance of Snoopers’ Charter

A new poll commissioned by UK civil liberties group Liberty has found that 72 per cent of people do not know anything about the Investigatory Powers Bill – or have never even heard of it.

The ComRes survey also found that nine in 10 British adults either say it is only acceptable for the government to access and monitor records of their emails, text messages, phone calls and online browsing history if they are suspected of or have committed a crime – or say this practice is never acceptable.

The results come as MPs prepare to debate the bill in the House of Commons.

The bill will also force internet service providers to generate and hand over “internet connection records” for the whole population – covering everything from opening apps and uploading photos to internet browsing histories – regardless of criminality or suspicion.

Bella Sankey, director of policy for Liberty, said: “In its effort to expand the surveillance state, the government is already ignoring technology experts, service providers and three cross-party parliamentary committees – but the views of the British public will be harder for even the Home Secretary to dismiss.

“This bill would create a detailed profile on each of us which could be made available to hundreds of organisations to speculatively trawl and analyse. It will all but end online privacy, put our personal security at risk and swamp law enforcement with swathes of useless information.

“The vast majority of people know nothing about this bill but, when asked, overwhelmingly reject this approach – MPs must listen to those they represent, vote against this rotten legislation and give us the effective, targeted system the British people want, need and deserve.”