On the first of April, the Sunday Times carried a story that the Home Secretary planned to expand the scope of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act. Some thought this was an April Fool, but no: security minister James Brokenshire confirmed the next day that it was for real. This led to much media coverage; here is a more detailed historical timeline.

There have been eight previous Scrambling for Safety conferences organised while the UK government was considering the RIP Act and the regulations that followed it. The goal is to bring together different stakeholders interested in surveillance policy for an open exchange of views. The conference is open to the public, but you have to register.

13:00 Welcome – Eileen Munro

13:10 Overview – Gus Hosein

13:30 First panel – setting the scene

• Shami Chakrabarti – the constraints set by human-rights law
• Ross Anderson – history of traffic data surveillance
• Trefor Davies – what ISPs can do and at what cost
• Julian Huppert MP
• David Davis MP
• Jim Killock (chair)

14:30 Networking break – tea and coffee

14:45 Technical briefing – Peter Sommer

15:00 Second panel – the devil in the detail

• Sir Chris Fox QPM – what do the police really need?
• Douwe Korff – the legal aspects
• Tom Brake MP
• David Smith
• Whitfield Diffie – Crypto Wars 2.0
• Gus Hosein (chair)

Registration

Organised by:

• The London School of Economics
• Big Brother Watch
• The Foundation for Information Policy Research
• The Open Rights Group
• Privacy International