Policy Committee Proposals on Privacy from Electronic Surveillance

This page is for the Policy Committee to collate proposals for and discussions about the official policy on privacy from electronic surveillance. Please post your ideas in Board index > Party Policy Development > Policy Committee Activities > Privacy from Electronic Surveillance .

Provisional options
Limiting government surveillance:
 * [A] No policy
 * [B] A referendum or 75% majority should be required to extend government surveillance powers under law
 * [C] The government should refrain from using new technology for surveillance, at least until the issue has been subject to genuine democratic consideration
 * [D] Both the above
 * [W] No confidence in the vote (if you use this option, you must place it first)

Promoting communication privacy with law:
 * [E] No policy
 * [F] Legal protection of communications intended to be private should relate to the effort involved in intercepting them
 * [G] Legal protection of communications intended to be private should be equal, regardless of the effort involved in intercepting them
 * [W] No confidence in the vote (if you use this option, you must place it first)

Promoting communication privacy with technology:
 * [H] No policy
 * [I] Privacy measures such as encryption should be encouraged
 * [J] Privacy measures such as encryption should be required in consumer products and services (requires 75% majority)
 * [W] No confidence in the vote (if you use this option, you must place it first)

Addressing power imbalance:
 * [K] No policy
 * [L] When providing services, companies should not require disclosure of more information than is necessary for providing the service (requires 75% majority)
 * [W] No confidence in the vote (if you use this option, you must place it first)

Ideas from discussions
Promoting communication privacy with law:
 * On one side is the suggestion that we have a moral right to privacy in our personal communications, regardless of the medium, and the law ought to reflect this.
 * On the other side is the suggestion that unencrypted e-mail is inherently less secure than physical mail (more open to surveillance), and that this can't be fixed with legislation.