Respect Privacy

Text of the Policy

 * The Pirate Party will legislate with the principle in mind that the privacy of the individual should be respected at all times.
 * We will forbid private third parties from intercepting or monitoring communication traffic (i.e. telephone calls, post, Internet traffic, emails), and require specific warrants to be issued by a court before the police or government agency are allowed to monitor communications traffic (including meta data).
 * We will ensure that the freedom to encrypt data and communications is not abridged or limited and that access to, and creation of, the tools that make secure communications possible is not restricted.
 * We will significantly strengthen data protection laws, ensuring that companies and the government holding personal information give people more information about their rights; apply a effective level of security to data; and are clear about their policies on data retention and amendment of said policies. A person who chooses to permanently delete their data on a private web service has the right to expect that their online data has been permanently deleted with the exception of a minimal amount of data for billing purposes. This does not include the data that the user has voluntarily shared in the past and is beyond the of control of the provider.
 * Oppose mandatory data retention laws that require service providers to retain user’s private information. This practice violates a user’s privacy rights.
 * We will make it easier to apply to a court for compensation where data protection laws have been breached. We will also increase the penalties for any breaches of data protection laws, proportionally to the scale of the breach.
 * Impose penalties on service providers and telecom companies who give out private information to third parties (including government) without a warrant or user consent.
 * We will insist that searches of personal property should only be done with reasonable suspicion of a serious criminal offence, and that any targeted surveillance requires a warrant. We will also introduce an annual independent audit of all cases in which surveillance is used, using the results to ensure that any legislation that allows intrusive acts is no broader than absolutely required and are used appropriately.
 * We will create clearer guidelines and restrictions on the use of DNA records by authorities, to ensure samples are either taken voluntarily, or when there are reasonable grounds to suspect the individual of having committed a serious offence or with a court order. These samples will be promptly destroyed if the individual is acquitted or not charged with a criminal offence, and they will only be held for the length of time for which there is a reasonable suspicion that the suspect has committed a crime or if convicted.
 * Implement strict guidelines for cabinet ministers accessing citizen health, military, and tax records. It will require all access to be logged and reason given stating the purpose of the access.

Rationales

 * Various Supreme Court Ruling (including R vs Vu) have acknowldged that privacy must be protected. Metadata and personal data on a computer or mobile devices holds information that is unlike any data before, where a traditional court warrants would normally be needed. Current information on devices offers a window to very intimate details about a person's life. That intimate details must be protected in a free society.
 * There are indications of widespread rampant disregard for laws even before anti-privacy laws being pushed for have passed. Snowden leaks provides a lot of examples of such abuses. We should strengthen not weaken our civil rights in the information age. Improvement in technology should not equal less rights.

Possible Misinformations
Myth: Privacy is no longer possible in the information age and we should just resign to modern reality.  Fact: Such a defeatist attitude only serves to benefit those who seek to weaken our civil rights and democratic safeguards. While it is true that technology makes it easier to violate our rights, it does not mean we should not prosecute people who intentionally violate these rights.

Related News or Articles
S-4, C-13, Anti-bullying bill

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