GCSB, privacy & Facebook messaging
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2:42 pm, August 15th, 2014 - 7 comments
Categories: election 2014, same old national, social media lolz, Spying, telecommunications, uk politics, us politics -
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It is possible that a deliberately enabled loophole in our current GCSB law opens the way for the GCSB to legally spy on New Zealanders.
Denis Tegg reports that there are problems with the definition of “privacy” in the GCSB Law, following its amendment last year. He argues that most people now have an expectation that our private communications may be intercepted at some point.
These increased expectations of interception profoundly affect the legal interpretation of a critical phrase, “private communication”, in the GCSB Act.
It is critical because it is supposed to provide protection for New Zealanders against the GCSB’s most intrusive intelligence gathering and warrant-less interception powers.
Under the act a communication can be “private”, and therefore protected from interception, only if one of the parties has a “reasonable expectation” that their communication will not be intercepted.
Once we reasonably expect that our everyday communications will be intercepted, the GCSB can lawfully deem those communications to be not private.
John Key has stated that metadata won’t always be deemed part of private communications. And metadata are the records of dates, times, names of participants in our communications.
Tegg also points out that the Snowden documents show that the US spy agency NSA actively looks for ways to build surveillance loopholes in the legislation of their spy partners in foreign countries.
Tegg cites some overseas examples:
US authorities recently argued that even users of encrypted email service Lavabit did not have a reasonable expectation that their emails would not be intercepted.
In the UK, intelligence officials have contended in court that two users messaging each other on Facebook were not communicating with each other but with the Facebook “platform”.
This Guardian article from June 2014 argues that surveillance of social messaging, such as on Facebook, can be done without a warrant by the the GCHQ, the UK’s equivalent agency to NZ’s GCSB.
His submission explains that searches on Google, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube are likely to involve communicating with a “web-based platform” abroad and are therefore “external communications” which do not “require a person or a set of premises to be named in the interception warrant”. Emails sent or received from abroad could be intercepted in a similar way.
I’m no fan of Facebook, and do indeed assume someone in a position of power could read any messages I exchange on the platform. Reflecting on this, I started to wonder why the likes of Cameron Slater, National Party staffers and Judith Collins would use Facebook messaging to exchange messages that have the potential to blow back on them. It suggests an attitude of impunity and assumed powerfulness.
Above all, a vote Left in the coming NZ election, will ensure that the latest amendments to the GCSB law are repealed and/or the whole law gets reviewed and revised.
We need security laws and services that keep us safe, while also ensuring privacy, that democracy can thrive, and that freedom of speech and association is protected (especially for those with relatively little power).
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The Green Party has written to the Speaker of the House requesting he enable a personal vote on the Treaty Principles Bill. ...2 weeks ago
- Govt move to exclude journalist risks chilling effect
The Green Party is alarmed by the Government’s move to exclude a journalist from covering this week’s apology for the survivors of abuse in state and faith-based care. ...2 weeks ago
- Without action, an apology will be empty air
For tomorrow’s apology to survivors of abuse in state and faith-based care to hold any water, the Government must not pursue the same policies that drove the abuse in the first place. ...2 weeks ago
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- Release: Poroporoaki: Ta Robert (Bom) Gillies
Kua hinga te manawa kairākau o Te Rua Tekau Ma Waru Tiwhatiwha te po! Kakarauru i te po! Ka rapuhia kei hea koe kua riro! Haere e te Ika a Whiro ki o tini hoa kua ngaro atu ki te Pō ...2 weeks ago
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The opposition parties stand united for an Aotearoa that honours Te Tiriti, rather than seeking to rewrite it. Labour, the Greens and Te Pāti Māori are working together against the Government’s divisive Treaty Principles Bill. ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Labour, Greens and Te Pāti Māori call on the Prime Minister to block the Treaty Principle...
The opposition parties stand united for an Aotearoa that honours Te Tiriti, rather than seeking to rewrite it. Labour, the Greens and Te Pāti Māori are working together against the Government’s divisive Treaty Principles Bill. ...2 weeks ago
- NZ must pursue independent foreign policy
The Green Party says the need is greater than ever for Aotearoa New Zealand to pursue an independent foreign policy. ...2 weeks ago
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Ka nui te mihi kia koutou. Ka mihi ki te mana whenua ko Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei. Kia ora and good morning everyone. Thank you Fran and Simon for inviting me here today, and importantly your leadership of this forum over several years now. I want to acknowledge David Gehrenbeck, Deputy ...2 days ago
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- District Court Judge appointed
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- Appointments strengthen Predator Free 2050
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- New facility in Christchurch will improve the lives of young New Zealanders
Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey today opened Kahurangi, an innovative and much-needed facility for Canterbury’s Child, Adolescent, and Family Mental Health Services. “The new state of the art outpatient facility opened today will be a gamechanger for the way mental health is delivered for young people in Canterbury,” says Mr ...2 days ago
- Driver safety screens to be installed on Auckland buses
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed news from the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) that bus driver protection screens will be installed across Auckland’s bus fleet by 2026.“The Government is committed to improving the safety of working environments for bus drivers, and Budget 2024 allocated $15 million of Crown funding over ...2 days ago
- Government action provides Southland farmers more time to meet plan requirements
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The Oranga Tamariki (Responding to Serious Youth Offending) Bill had its first reading at Parliament today. The Bill reaffirms the Government’s commitment to crack down on serious youth offending, Minister for Children Karen Chhour says. “In recent years we have seen an unacceptable spike in youth offending. “This Bill makes ...3 days ago
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- State of the art radiology machine for Auckland
People in Northland and Auckland will benefit from a new machine for cancer treatment installed at the Regional Cancer and Blood Service at Auckland City Hospital. The MV5 linear accelerator, or LINAC machine, officially opened today targets cancer tumours with pinpoint accuracy. Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says this new, ...3 days ago
- Foreign Minister to visit Europe
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Winston Peters will travel to Europe for high-level talks with France, Germany and the United Kingdom next week. "Since taking office almost a year ago, the Coalition Government has emphasised the importance we place on New Zealand's traditional and likeminded diplomatic and ...3 days ago
- First arrests made under gang patch ban
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- Better support for victims of sexual violence
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- Government moving forward with Regional Deals
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- MSA pilot participant update
One of the ten young men selected to participate in the Military-Style Academy Pilot has allegedly reoffended. Children’s Minister Karen Chhour is disappointed but says it would be naïve to think that none of these young men would reoffend. “I’m saddened that this young person has not taken this opportunity ...3 days ago
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- Improving the lives of young New Zealanders
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Tēnā koutou katoa – it is a pleasure to be here today. I would like to begin by acknowledging the important leadership role you all play in ensuring a quality health system New Zealanders can trust. There is enormous clinical expertise in this room covering a wide range of disciplines. ...4 days ago
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Tēnā koutou katoa. Mr President, Excellencies, Delegates. New Zealand, and all nations represented here today, are already dealing with the impacts of climate change. Our households, businesses, and economies are bearing the costs of its effects. The choices we make now will shape the severity of these impacts for generations ...4 days ago
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- Temporary Traffic Management costs revealed
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- Protecting New Zealand from foreign interference
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Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed news that the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) Board has approved funding towards pre-implementation and early works on the State Highway 1 (SH1) Belfast to Pegasus Motorway and Woodend Bypass Road of National Significance (RoNS). “Reaching this significant milestone is a reflection of our Government’s ...5 days ago
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- Next steps for Regulatory Standards Bill
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- Red Tape Tipline goes live
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- Better coordination of anti-scam efforts
With the launch of Fraud Awareness Week, the Government is committing to new coordination efforts across industry and government to combat online scams, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says. “Online financial scams are a growing problem for New Zealand. New data released today shows that Kiwis lost nearly ...6 days ago
- Minister to consider 7AA select committee report
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Defence Minister Judith Collins will this week attend the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Defence Ministers’ Meeting-Plus in Vientiane, Laos. “We need to take every opportunity to engage with our international partners, given the increasingly unstable geo-political situation,” Ms Collins says. “New Zealand has a long-standing commitment to this ...6 days ago
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jacqueline Peel, Director, Melbourne Climate Futures, The University of Melbourne The petroleum-laden dust has settled on this year’s United Nations climate summit, COP29, held over the past fortnight in Baku, Azerbaijan. Climate scientists, leaders, lobbyists and delegates are heading for home. ...23 minutes ago - All Blacks end of year tour: What we learned
Analysis - There's plenty to talk about including TJ Perenara's statement during the haka, Jamie Wall writes. ...5 hours ago - ‘To love is to move towards freedom’: Parliament’s newest MP makes their maiden st...
Green MP Benjamin Doyle has joined the 54th Parliament a year into its term. Their maiden statement emphasised the need for radical love. ...9 hours ago
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- An Ode to .. Erica Stanford
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While it is important to maintain strong alliances, it is equally crucial to uphold our Kiwi values of fairness and justice. New Zealand has always prided itself on its commitment to equality and human rights. ...20 hours ago
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Celeste Rodriguez Louro, Chair of Linguistics and Director of Language Lab, The University of Western Australia Rroselavy / Shutterstock Earlier this year, a Hong Kong finance worker was tricked into paying US$25 million to scammers who had used deepfake technology to ...2 days ago
The server will be getting hardware changes this evening starting at 10pm NZDT.
The site will be off line for some hours.
because they are rookies….
encrypt your S$&t !
http://www.openpgp.org/
https://wickr.com/
What this guy said.
Stop being so stupid in the first place.
Doesn’t matter what our laws are when you are access stuff in other countries.
How Covert Agents Infiltrate the Internet to Manipulate, Deceive, and Destroy Reputations
“One of the many pressing stories that remains to be told from the Snowden archive is how western intelligence agencies are attempting to manipulate and control online discourse with extreme tactics of deception and reputation-destruction. It’s time to tell a chunk of that story, complete with the relevant documents.”
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/02/24/jtrig-manipulation/
NSA and GHCQ Employing Shills To Poison Web Forum Discourse
http://beta.slashdot.org/story/198625
It is far worse than you know or, can imagine…
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/jul/14/gchq-tools-manipulate-online-information-leak
Happy days, New Zealand
Save us from those elected to protect us.
Joyce was not at all apologetic for the behaviour outlined by hager, he just wants people to believe theyre all doing it. Think about that as a defence from those elected to safeguard us
“Under the act a communication can be “private”, and therefore protected from interception, only if one of the parties has a “reasonable expectation” that their communication will not be intercepted.
Once we reasonably expect that our everyday communications will be intercepted, the GCSB can lawfully deem those communications to be not private.”
That is some fruity reasoning within the law…………
Thanks for the article karol. Very timely as I have been avoiding facebook all this time for reasons of distrust of the level of privacy and the ability of the authorities to snoop around having a nosey. Also the concept of such a platform has no appeal.
BUT! I am signing up so I can be involved with the People’s Power Ohariu page. That is the sole reason. Once the election is over I’ll be out of there.
And yes, let’s all do our best to make this happen, a change of government
“Above all, a vote Left in the coming NZ election, will ensure that the latest amendments to the GCSB law are repealed and/or the whole law gets reviewed and revised.”