The idea
This is another of those characteristic laws that gives almost unlimited powers to the enforcer with the (not so) comforting explanatory note that it will "never be used".
- Get rid of the black boxes: privacy is fundamentally more valuable than the comfort of law enforcers.
- Get rid of the reverse burden of proof: you cannot prove a negative no matter how hard you try.
- Get rid of the gagging order.
- In fact get rid of the entire act. Try being rational for a change.
Fundamentally, I do not trust you, the politicians. You are beneath even contempt, as recent events have shown.
You have no honour.
And you are far more of a threat than any number of dodgy cyber-criminals, no matter what sort of pictures they look at.
Is that clear enough for you?
Why is it important?
Preserves the following principles:
- that the burden of proof is upon the accuser
- the principle of least privilege i.e. that the state has no right to intrude upon the majority of the population "to winnow out the few bad apples"