Investigatory Powers Act
November 2016
In late 2016, the United Kingdom passed the Investigatory Powers Act, 2016. Among many powers granted to law enforcement, the Act allows the Government to issue Technical Capability Notices (known as “TCNs”) which can be used to force to alter their service to enable law enforcement to intercept user content. For end-to-end encrypted communications, this would force them to undermine the security and privacy of their service by implementing an encryption backdoor. As of September 2022, the British Government is not yet known to have issued a TCN. (updated September 2022)
See what some of our members have said in opposition to the Investigatory Powers Act:
- The investigatory Powers Act is UK’s most extreme surveillance law (Open Rights Group)
- Investigatory Powers Bill set to become Law (Big Brother Watch)
- UK Investigatory Powers Bill (Electronic Frontier Foundation)
Online Safety Bill
May 2021 – Ongoing
The government of the United Kingdom is currently pursuing legislation, the “Online Safety Bill“ which, if not significantly revised, would force platforms to monitor and filter user content by default, alongside using prescribed technologies to combat child sexual abuse material. While well intentioned, the Bill would have the unintended consequence of forcing end-to-end encrypted platforms to undermine the security and privacy of their users to implement techniques to monitor and filter their user content. These concerns have been raised by many members of the Global Encryption Coalition alongside cyber security experts worldwide. On 19 September 2023, the UK Parliament passed the Online Safety Bill. (Updated September 2023)
See what some of our members have said in opposition to the Online Safety Bill:
- 45 organizations and cybersecurity experts sign an open letter expressing concerns with UK’s Online Safety Bill (Open Letter)
- Online Safety Bill: Punishing Victims (Open Rights Group)
- Internet Impact Brief: End-to-end Encryption under the UK’s Draft Online Safety Bill (Internet Society)
- The UK’s Online Safety Bill poses serious risks to human rights (Global Partners Digital)