Cayman’s lord chairs UK web-snooping committee

| 05/07/2012

021 (237x300).jpg(CNS): Lord Blencathra, the head of the Cayman Islands UK office and Cayman’s cheerleader in the corridors of power in London and Brussles, is chairing a committee to examine the British Government’s draft Communications Data Bill. "Each and every one of us" will be affected by the bill, the Conservative peer told the BBC on Thursday. Blencathra chairs the joint committee of MPs and peers holding the inquiry and stressed a privacy-security balance. Under government's plans, internet service providers will have to store details of internet use in the UK for a year to allow police and intelligence services to access it.

Records will include people's activity on social network sites, webmail, internet phone calls and online gaming.

Ministers argue that changes are needed to ensure that law-enforcement agencies can access data about new technology communication just as they are currently able to with older forms of communication.

"This committee wants to ensure that the draft bill will ensure a sufficient balance between an individual's privacy and national security," said Lord Blencathra. "We intend very thoroughly to examine the government's proposals and hope to hear from interested bodies and organisations about exactly how the changes in technology and the way we use it should be reflected in legislation about access to communication data."

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  1. Anonymous says:

    Cayman has only ONE lord, and it is NOT Blencathra!

  2. Anonymous says:

    According to your 22 June story story this guy is being paid £14K a month to be the 'Director' of the Cayman Islands' UK office.

    I guess that, like many other public servants and consultants on the CIG payroll, he only actually works for us when he feels like it?

  3. Anonymous says:

    This is very limited information provided in this news report.  Maybe CNS might think to do a more thorough report on the law, itself, rather than this peer who will chair the committee to review it.

    This law will give police the right to examine the internet, mobile phone and e-mail communication of EVERY SINGLE  INDIVIDUAL in the United Kingdom….and Territories ?

    We don't know about the BOTs yet; what we do know is that all internet providers will be recording their customers on-line and e-mail useage on 'black-box' devices…and then turning those black boxes over to thepolice….not at request…but as a standard procedure.

    Does this sound like something out of a 'one-world government conspiracy' movie ?

    It certainly does to me.

    • Newbie says:

      Every piece of email traffic and internet use in Cayman is already monitored through Miami anyway.

  4. Whodatis says:

    This is not necessarily aimed at Blencathra – but I always find it quite bewildering whenever I see gray-haired, middle-aged men leading committees that relate to the internet and information technology today.

    There is such a culture and age gap between the innovators and regulators of this bold new world that a tremendous level of misunderstanding and lack of context is all but guaranteed.

  5. Take Dat says:

    Da wha una get.  PPM cause it Read paragraph 2.   Take dat, all una foreigners following Ezzard Alden and Arden.  I bet all the expats wish now they did not get on the band waggon with Ezzard.