YouGov Find UK Support for Tougher State Internet Snooping Law is Split

A new YouGov survey of 1,647 adults across Great Britain, which was conducted at the end of last week, has indicated that 53% of people support calls for a tougher Internet Snooping law that would log and supply more of your private communications data (e.g. email, website, Skype access logs etc.) to the security services. But happily most oppose the recent calls for a ban on encryption.

The survey, which was commissioned by the Sunday Times, asked a series of sometimes similar questions in order to gauge how people felt about the recent talk of another Internet Snooping Law revival and the somewhat bizarre calls for a clampdown on the use of encryption, which helps to keep all our communications and financial transactions private and secure (here).

Generally 53% of respondents said they felt as if most of the “large Internet companies” (i.e. ISPs and Internet content providers like Facebook or Twitter etc.) could be doing a lot more than they currently are to work with the country’s security services and help combat terrorism (20% felt they were doing enough already and 26% didn’t know).

Recently David Cameron has again demanded that phone and Internet companies should also be required to retain everyone’s data (but not the content of your communication) – Internet browsing history, emails, voice calls, social media interactions, and mobile messaging – for 12 months.

The YouGov study then specifically asks whether the respondents agreed that Police and intelligence agencies should have access to this information for anti-terrorism purposes and 53% said Yes, with 31% opposed and 16% not sure. We note that the above question only asked about “anti-terrorism“, although one concern is that the data could be used for other things too.

In relation to the above, respondents were also asked whether they would trust the police to behave responsibly with information obtained using such powers and the vote was split with roughly half saying they did trust the Police. The same question was then asked about the intelligence services (MI5 and MI6) having access to said data, although in that case 63% said they’d have total trust. Elsewhere only 45% said they’d trust the Home Office, ministers and civil servants to behave responsibly with such information.

The survey also asked whether people would support or oppose a ban on encryption software, which can prevent the security services from accessing someone’s communications data and is also a vital tool for ensuring secure online transactions (in fact encryption is pretty much everywhere online, it’s absolutely vital). Mercifully only 29% said they’d support a ban, while 43% were opposed and 28% didn’t know.

In politics the use of Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt (FUD) can be a very potent weapon. The use of FUD is often woefully disproportionate and reality distorting, but sadly many people do tend to buy into it, often without taking a deeper look first, and thus seek safety through new laws. But sometimes such laws can have unintended consequences, which may well go beyond the original premise, and those are the things we have to guard against.

One significant problem with the current proposals, as thin as they are, is that they’ve been promoted by politicians who appear to have very little appreciation for how the Internet actually works under the hood and with practically zero prior industry consultation.