Excerpts from a story in today's New Zealand Herald (a large daily paper), http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=157533: Taxpayer cash to help e-spies 30.10.2000 By EUGENE BINGHAM political reporter The Government is planning to pay telephone and internet companies to make their systems open to interception by spy services. The move is part of plans to bolster surveillance capabilities. A proposal dealing with the powers of intelligence agencies would force communications companies to adapt their systems so customers' e-mail and internet dealings could be snooped upon. [...] The Crimes Amendment Bill will be adapted to give police, the Security Intelligence Service and the Government Communications Security Bureau the power to intercept electronic communications and hack into computers to retrieve files. The GCSB's powers will be written into the Crimes Act. The bureau, the most powerful of all New Zealand's spy services, is not now covered by any legislation. Peace researcher Nicky Hager says the changes, revealed by the Weekend Herald in June, are a United States-driven bid to synchronise international spy capabilities. He said they matched laws introduced in the US and Europe. He traced the changes to a 1993 meeting at the FBI headquarters in Washington, which was attended by New Zealand officials. [...] More bits from a day or two back, stuff.co.nz, http://www.stuff.co.nz/inl/index/0,1008,460236a10,FF.html Sweeping powers for spy agencies 29 OCTOBER 2000 Police and government spy agencies are pushing for major new surveillance powers - including the ability to intercept e-mails. In a move the Council for Civil Liberties labels a "major and disturbing intrusion" new surveillance laws are being planned which will allow police and intelligence agencies to hack covertly into home computers and intercept email and other electronic communication. Researcher and author Nicky Hager, says the proposed legislation strongly resembles the British Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act passed amid huge controversy three months ago. But he says unlike the British experience, the New Zealand legislation is being slipped through in stages, as extensions of present laws. The first is to be tabled in parliament in about 10 days. The laws were devised under the National government and can be traced back to a push by the FBI in the United States for standardised spy systems to intercept mobile phones and emails. [...] He said the way the changes were being introduced, piecemeal and in secret, was "a model of bad government". The first legislation expands the interception powers of the police and the Government Communications Security Bureau to cover all forms of electronic communications (including email, faxes and text messaging) and, for the Security Intelligence Service as well, to cover hacking into computer systems to view and copy people's files.
