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UK: GCHQ's 'Great British Firewall' raises serious concern – privacy groups - campaigners say giving agency greater surveillance powers to combat hackers is like ‘the fox protecting the chicken’

15 September 2016

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"Privacy groups have expressed serious concern at the prospect of a “Great British Firewall” proposed by the surveillance agency GCHQ to protect major British companies against malicious hackers.

They said they were worried that it could be used to deny freedom of speech, with the government potentially able to designate sites they disapprove of as “malware”.

There is also concern about the prospect of handing over such power to GCHQ, given its track record of intrusion working in tandem with the US National Security Agency (NSA).

Thomas Falchetta, a legal officer for Privacy International, said: “Given the broad scope of GCHQ’s hacking operations both domestically and abroad, this seems like the fox protecting the chicken.”"

See the article: GCHQ's 'Great British Firewall' raises serious concern – privacy groups - campaigners say giving agency greater surveillance powers to combat hackers is like ‘the fox protecting the chicken’ (Guardian, link)

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