Tech Liberty is proud to be a co-signatory of the International Principles on the Application of Human Rights to Communication Surveillance. Tech Liberty’s purpose is to defend civil liberties in the digital age. One of the key challenges has been the way that advances in technology have made mass surveillance dramatically cheaper and easier to … Continue reading Application of Human Rights to Communication Surveillance
Text of our oral submission to the Intelligence and Security Committee concerning the GCSB Bill. Introduction I represent Tech Liberty, we’re a group dedicated to defending civil liberties in the digital age. We see many problems with this bill and the thinking that lies behind it, problems that we described in our written submission. Today … Continue reading GCSB Bill – Oral Submission
Dear Mr Key This letter is partly in response to the findings of the Kitteridge report about the GCSB and their failures to follow the law, but is also mindful of the recent PRISM revelations about the actions of the NSA in the USA, as well as the mass spying revealed to have been carried … Continue reading Open letter to John Key – the right to know
Full text of the Tech Liberty submission to the Intelligence & Security Committee concerning the Government Communications Security Bureau and Related Legislation Amendment Bill. Summary Tech Liberty has deep concerns about the extent of the powers granted to the GCSB by this Bill, especially when combined with the proposed changes to the Telecommunications (Interception Capability) … Continue reading Submission: GCSB Bill
Apple recently released a statement about their cooperation with law enforcement. It includes: For example, conversations which take place over iMessage and FaceTime are protected by end-to-end encryption so no one but the sender and receiver can see or read them. Apple cannot decrypt that data. [Update: see this discussion about whether this is entirely … Continue reading Will the GCSB ban Apple from New Zealand?
Full text of the Tech Liberty submission to the Law & Order Select Committee concerning the Telecommunications (Interception Capability & Security) Bill. Summary In general we support the ability of the government to have interception capabilities on telecommunications where possible, when those interception capabilities have suitable oversight and control. We have made some technical suggestions … Continue reading Submission – Telecommunications (Interception Capability & Security) Bill
There have recently been a number of revelations about the US government spying on its citizenry and other people around the world (a good summary). Many people have been shocked to find out the extent of the US’s spying and access into theoretically private systems. What many New Zealanders don’t realise is that the NZ … Continue reading GCSB’s new powers for wide-spread spying on New Zealanders
Edited text of the presentation given at Kiwicon 2012 (“New Zealand’s Hacker Con”) by Tech Liberty co-founder Thomas Beagle. Do not ask for whom the panopticon watches, it watches for thee My name is Thomas Beagle and I’m from Tech Liberty. We’re a New Zealand lobby group dedicated to protecting civil liberties in the digital … Continue reading Presentation to Kiwicon 6, 2012
The Law Commission’s proposed Communications (New Media) Bill (PDF) is the result of their report on Harmful Digital Communications. They are proposing: The creation of a new criminal offence that targets digital communications which are “grossly offensive or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character and which cause harm”. Harm is said to include physical … Continue reading What’s wrong with the Communications (New Media) Bill and can it be fixed?
The following is a guest post from Matt Taylor about the operation of the government’s internet censorship in New Zealand.