4.
TECHNOLOGY
Introduction
4.1.
Any new law – at least if it is to last as long as RIPA has done – must be couched in
technology-neutral language. But that fact cannot alter the need for those who debate
that law to have at least some understanding of the relevant technology.
4.2.
Different participants in the debate rely on the fact and nature of technological change
to promote their arguments. Thus:
(a)
Privacy advocates point out that as lives take place increasingly online, the
potential for electronic surveillance, and its intrusiveness, are growing
exponentially.
(b)
Law enforcement and intelligence refer to factors such as the fragmentation of
providers, concealment of identity and growth of encryption to emphasise the
existence of ungoverned spaces, and point to a growing “capability gap”.
It is plain that the utility and intrusiveness of new and existing investigatory powers
can also be evaluated only on the basis of a sound technical understanding.
4.3.
This Chapter is compiled entirely from open-source material. Its purpose is to outline,
in layman’s terms, some of the basic technological concepts and developments that
underlie the legislative debate. It lays no claim to technical authority (though it has
been reviewed by technical experts). The lightning pace of change means that it is
likely to be in some respects out of date almost immediately. Nonetheless, I hope it
may be of value to those who must wrestle with the policy issues in this Report.
Changing methods of communication
4.4
Ours is not the first age to make revolutionary claims for new technology. A fictional
professor spoke in 1988 of “the three things which have revolutionised academic life
in the last twenty years” as being “jet travel, direct-dialling telephones and the Xerox
machine”, adding that with those, “you’re plugged into the only university that really
matters – the global campus.”1 But changing methods of communication since that
time, and in particular the growth of the internet, have eclipsed even those
developments in their long-term significance.
From landlines to smart phones
4.5.
1
2
As recently as 1989, letters and landlines were the main methods of communication.2
By 2014, fewer than three in ten 16-24 year olds used a landline during a week. 16%
of UK households do not have one, and the latest UK Communications Infrastructure
D. Lodge, Small World, 1988, pp. 43-44, cited by S. Pinker, The better angels of our
nature, 2011, p. 214.
Save where otherwise stated, the facts in 4.5-4.10 are taken from Ofcom’s Communications Market
Reports of August 2011 and August 2014, and from its Infrastructure Report of December 2014.
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