UK government data collection agencies should report directly to the public, says Sir Tim Berners-Lee

"If you want to take away my privacy, what are you going to actually do?" asks Berners-Lee

Sir Tim Berners-Lee has issued a demand that the UK government's data collection agencies "report directly to us, the public" in order to start a more open system of accountability for fighting terrorism, while retaining people's rights to privacy.

Speaking at the premier of ForEveryone.net, a film about Berners-Lee's ongoing battle for net neutrality at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival in Utah earlier this week, Berners-Lee outlined his suggestions for people and state to work together more effectively.

"To a certain extent, we as a society need to decide how much power to give to the police. And sometimes we have to adjust it, but also I think a lot of the time there's a false dichotomy there. The assumption is: ‘We've had some terrorism, therefore we need to take away privacy'.

But hang on! If you want to take away my privacy, what are you going to actually do?" asked Berners-Lee.

"What do you want to be able to see? Supposing you could see all my communications - who I send emails to, and look at my videos - that wouldn't infringe my privacy very much, but it would allow you to [survey] the social networks that terrorists might use.

"And that's very different to just giving access to everything, and to encrypted messages."

Berners-Lee suggested an alternative to the assembled audience, many of whom worked in the telecoms or data business, explaining the kinds of conversations that already go on when "people that you know and I know all sit down" together: "They decide we need ways of reading all these things," he said.

He continued: "But then if it does happen, we haven't talked about the accountability that we've got in place. It's not just as simple as saying ‘Yes you can have access to it all'. So if you want to access this information and all the legal processes have been gone through, who's keeping an eye on you and looking over your shoulders, and looking after the [people's] data?"

Berners-Lee suggested that "if we're going to have an MI5 and an MI6 and MI7 and MI8 checking up on you, they should report directly to us, the public, for example".