Spooky Bluetooth

The latest and most exciting piece of overramped security legislation to come our way is the benignly named Assistance and Access Bill. It gives Constable Plod and the spooks the power to get inside your mobile phone and, even better, smart speakers and cameras in private homes.

If this bill goes through, you can be monitored by Benito Dutton if he thinks you might be committing a crime or even a civil offence.

Further, it will permit authorities to demand technology companies give them access to almost any device or service that transmits information over the internet.

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Privacy, Professor

Joseph Cannataci, has criticised the government’s anti-encryption legislation, describing it as “fatally flawed”. Among other things, it has the potential to make us less safe because it will introduce vulnerabilities into the cybersecurity of all devices.

As for reptiles of the media, it will be impossible to protect the identity of a secret source, unless we revert to connecting through the post or by carrier pigeon, or hanging about in underground car parks in dark shades.