Tech Musing #2 - The Investigatory Powers Bill (The British Spy Law)

Article name: The UK’s Proposed Spy Law Would Force Apple to Secretly Hack its Phones Too
Article link: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2016/02/investigatory-powers-bill-and-apple

1) Briefly describe the main point or contribution of the article.

So you thought the FBI’s demands of Apple here in the United States was bad? Well in the United Kingdom, the British Government has proposed a new law known as the Investigatory Powers Bill. This law would permit the British government to force companies like Apple to re-engineer their own technology so that various authorities could have complete access to all data and information stored on devices. Unlike the FBI case here in the U.S., this bill would be accompanied with a gag order, which in the Apple case, would permit Tim Cook from even telling the public it was happening! This bill would apply to all “telecommunications operators” (very broad in scope) and it would apply to all matters which the British Government deem “interests in national security” (even broader). The author of was not afraid to denounce this potential law, and said it could potentially “legitimize such powers for the rest of the world.”

2) Show how it is related to the class and topics we have discussed.

While we have not covered much about information security in class, this has been a hot topic everywhere and it garnered a lot of discussion on our MIS 441 Facebook group page. Many people (particularly millennials) get very heated about privacy issues like this and consider this to be totally unconstitutional and unethical. I have a problem with this myself, but I think I have slightly different feelings on this issue than most of my peers. Personally, I don’t really care if the government has access to information on my phone, I don’t have anything to hide from the government. My problem is that if this technology is created, it WILL eventually fall into the wrong hands and be used maliciously.

3) How or why this information is helpful to MIS students and/or professionals.

This is not just about MIS students or MIS professionals. This is something that all citizens need to be aware of. Period. This is a ground-breaking issue that would affect everyone. It would be one thing for the FBI to publicly force Apple or other companies to create a “backdoor” on all of their devices and have citizens be aware of it. However if this law in the United Kingdom gets passed, we wouldn’t even know about a potential backdoor. This is something everyone should be aware of when using smartphones and other devices.