Activists warned to watch what they say as social media monitoring becomes ‘next big thing in law enforcement’ – Crime – UK – The Independent.

Quote:

Political activists must watch what they say on the likes of Facebook and Twitter, sites which will become the “next big thing in law enforcement”, a leading human rights lawyer has warned.

John Cooper QC said that police are monitoring key activists online and that officers and the courts are becoming increasingly savvy when it comes to social media. But, speaking to The Independent, he added that he also expected that to drive an increase in the number of criminals being brought to justice in the coming months.

“People involved in public protest should use social media to their strengths, like getting their message across. But they should not use them for things like discussing tactics. They might as well be having a tactical meeting with their opponents sitting in and listening.

“For example, if antifascist organisers were discussing their plans on social media, they can assume that a fascist organisation will be watching. Social media sites are the last place you want to post something like that,” he said.

No big surprise there, it’s all a bit obvious.

Also unsurprisingly it seems that the #OccupyWhatever brandname is greater than the #Cryptoparty brandname, with obvious resultant reporting:

But some activists are trying to overcome that naivety. In London on Saturday, former members of the Occupy encampment outside St Paul’s Cathedral – among others – were among the 130 people who meet technical experts for lessons on how to keep themselves safe online. The so-called “Cryptoparty” was part of a global movement to arm those who want to carry out protests online with the skills to maintain their anonymity.

Attendees at the event at the Google Campus in east London’s Tech City were simply asked to bring a laptop and technology experts promised to teach them skills like encryption. The events were the brainchild of an Australian activist, who uses the online nickname Asher Wolf. She said: “The idea is to stay safe online and protect the privacy of personal communication.

Right. And the usual “we’re not hackers” thing. Le Sigh.

Cooper QC does finish with one sensible observation:

He said: “Police will use social media just as they used the Filofax and the mobile phone and why shouldn’t they?”

You know, I don’t have a problem with that so long as there is:

1. due process (get a proper warrant, effort required proportionate to invasiveness)
2. complete transparency (disclose warrant on the public record)
3. proportionality (no blanketing, no trawling, no “just because we booked you”)
4. no attempt to prevent people having security which is “too good”

…the latter because if you start saying how secure people are allowed to be – maximum keylengths, banned technologies, mandatory backdoors – there will be chaos.

Everyone deserves good security.