Policy Committee Proposals on Privacy from Electronic Surveillance

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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 <http://pirateparty.org.nz/forum/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=1071>.

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.