Government snooping: top tips from David Davis MP

Watch the 3 min video of David Davis MP’s top tips for winning the campaign against government snooping:

Last week, over 1000 of us tuned in to watch David Davis MP gave a special live briefing to 38 Degrees members. It was about the new plans for government snooping that would allow the government, police and security forces to access information about who we’ve emailed, websites we’ve visited and much more.

The government would be able to dictate to phone and internet companies what kind of technology they must use to collect this data, and taxpayers would need to cover the costs. You can watch the full recording of the David Davis MP briefing here.

So far, over 150,000 of us have signed a petition asking for these plans to be dropped and 38 Degrees members are now organising to hand in the petition to MPs up and down the country.

Can you organise a petition hand-in in your area? It’s really easy. Click here to get started.

During the live briefing, David Davis MP told us that the single most effective thing we can to protect our privacy is arrange to meet with our MPs to talk to them about our concerns. He said, “Do not underestimate the extent to which your MP will pay attention… go and talk to your MP, and be persistent.”

Here’s David Davis MP’s top tips for 38 Degrees members talking to their MPs about the new plans for government snooping:

• Talk to the MP in your own words, calmly and rationally.  But be persistent – MPs like a good debate!
• Tell your MP that this is a massive invasion of our privacy – the government would be able to access huge amounts of information about who we’ve contacted and when, without getting a proper warrant.
• The government claims these plans are about stopping terrorists and paedophiles – but people who use the internet for criminal purposes will easily find ways round the law, for example by using pay-as-you-go phones, internet cafes and anonymous internet servers. Ordinary, law-abiding people will be those most affected by this invasion of our privacy.
• The new plans would generate so much information to trawl through, that it would make it harder for security services to find terrorists, not easier.
• In Germany and the Czech Republic similar legislation was found to break article 8 of the Human Rights Act and quickly overturned.

So far, petition hand ins are happening in 47 constituencies. Can you organise one in your area?

You can find out more about organising a visit to your MP here and read about what happened when other members met their MPs to hand in the petition here.

Can you help to stop this invasion of our privacy by talking to your MP and delivering our petition to them? Click here to get started.