Posted: 01st Dec, 2010 By: MarkJ


The UK governments
Home Office department has done a
u-turn on its decision last week, when it refused to meet with "
civil society groups" to discuss planned changes to the
Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA) with regards to internet privacy law.
The RIPA changes came about as a direct result of consumer and EU concern over how some broadband ISPs, such as BT ( Webwise / Phorm ), had been abusing
Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) technology to "
intercept" their customers private online website browsing activity without first gaining express consent (
more history).
Jim Killock, Executive Director of the Open Rights Group (ORG), said:
"This is a small but important victory for ORG: it is vital that civil society is not “locked out” of discussions like this, allowing industrial voices to determine the agenda alone. We fought for several years alongside groups like No2DPI to get these laws changed, during the “Phorm” case, including sending many complaints to the EU Commission. It would be entirely wrong that we should now be shut out of the process.
If you have views on the review of UK Interception law and would like us to raise any points with the Home Office officials, please let us know. If you represent a group that is concerned with privacy laws and would like to attend the meeting, please get in touch."
The government's original consultation deadline has already been extended by ten days before and is due to complete on
17th December 2010, as a result the "
civil society groups" have been granted a quicky meeting this week.