Please get in touch with Javier directly if you are interested in signing
as an individual. Might WMUK be interested in signing on too?
---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Javier Ruiz <javier(a)openrightsgroup.org>
Date: Tue, 16 May 2017, 22:14
Subject: [ORG-advisory] Joint letter to stop password demands at UK border
under Schedule 7 Terrorism Act 2000
To: ORG Advisory Council
Dear all
we are working with other NGOs, calling for organisations and individuals
to sign to the following statement, with a view to start ongoing pressure
to demand a stop on password demands at the UK border.
Please mail me if you have any queries. There is some background here
https://wiki.openrightsgroup.org/wiki/Terrorism_Act_2000/Schedule_7 and
here
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/may/14/campaign-group-to-challeng…
Please forward it on to people you think may be able to sign. We’d like to
get it published by the end of the week. Apologies for the short notice.
Best, Javier
------
We, the undersigned, professionals, experts and practitioners in privacy
and human rights have observed that:
1) Mobile phones and digital devices today hold all of our personal
information, from intimate family photos to confidential work documents.
Most of our lives are documented digitally in some form. Our passwords are
the keys that unlock our digital lives and provide us with some privacy.
2) Recently there has been a growing international trend of authorities
demanding passwords at borders and forcibly gaining access to devices. A
coalition of human rights organisations in the US have launched the “Fly
don’t spy” campaign in order to ensure travellers are not forced to
disclose their passwords without reason.
3) In the UK, each year over 30,000 people are held without suspicion at
borders, many threatened with imprisonment if they do not reveal the
passwords to their phones, tablets and laptops. Their devices are then
copied and analysed. This is effectively unaccountable surveillance of
British citizens, circumventing investigatory powers legislation. Moreover,
80% of those stopped are from an ethnic minority suggesting the power may
be applied in a discriminatory manner.
We are concerned with these developments and believe that:
4) People should not have to choose between maintaining their right to
privacy or their right to travel, they should be allowed to have both. This
is especially true for journalists and human rights defenders who have a
duty to protect their sources.
5) No one should be forced to disclose their passwords without a warrant
based on specific suspicion and basic standards of evidence. No one should
be imprisoned for refusing to disclose it.
6) Thousands are already affected. The powers to compel password disclosure
at the border are open to abuse - infringing on the rights of individuals
to privacy, free speech and association - and should be removed.
END
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