Dear Justine Greening,

 Over the past few years I have grown increasingly worried about the state of internet safety in Britain. Since the recent election my fears have only grown and I wanted to reach out to you, as one of your constituents, to see where you stand on this issue and open a discussion.

 The internet is a marvel of the modern world. It is an incredible tool that has completely changed the world we live in and consequently touches many aspects of all of our lives.

 My fear is that many of the policies and laws that are currently being discussed in parliament (all under the guise of "keeping the public safe") threaten it's very foundation and actually do the exact opposite of what they propose. I worry that the politicians making these decisions do not understand their consequences or fundamental flaws. I believe that privacy is a basic human right.

 To give just one example, David Cameron is following through with plans to ban effective cryptography and force companies to introduce backdoors in software. This is outright insanity and will do nothing to protect the public. I am a computer programmer by trade and have a masters degree in mathematics. I not only understand the mechanics of how good encryption works, I am also able to implement it. I put it to you that if I wanted to communicate a message in secret there is nothing you or anyone else could do to stop me. If I can do it then so can a criminal. By deliberately weakening systems that your citizens rely on you put them at risk - if the government/police can get in then so can the bad guys. Further, such systems are ripe for abuse. There are countless cases of Google engineers abusing their power to read emails of Gmail users and this situation is no different.

 I understand that we live in a different world now, that we are facing new threats every day, and that we need to do *something* about it - but I also think the proposed solutions are wholly misguided and will not solve the problem. In fact, I believe they will make it worse.

 I could go on, but I would be really interested to hear your thoughts on this topic. If you disagree, I would love the chance to explain in more detail and hopefully sway you view.

 Yours sincerely,
A concerned UK citizen.




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Dear Mr Concerned,

Thank you for your email regarding the internet and internet safety. I am sorry for the delay in replying – staff sickness absence has meant that I have not been able to respond to constituents as promptly as usual.

However, I do understand your concerns and it is interesting to get your perspective on some of the issues from a professional viewpoint.  The nature of the threat we face is making it more difficult for the security services to identify terrorist plots, especially thanks to new technology so it’s sensible to ensure our outstanding intelligence and security agencies have the powers they need to keep us safe. At the same time, I will continue to reject any suggestions of sweeping, authoritarian measures that would threaten the sort of civil liberties you raised.

You raised particular concerns about encryption. I know Home Office ministers recognise that it plays a pivotal role in our lives in its use to protect people making purchases over the internet, using online banking and communicating with people. In the end, I do not believe that it is reasonable to allow terrorists, paedophiles and criminals to be able to use these same services out of sight to perpetrate criminal acts which harm UK citizens.  There cannot be areas of the internet which are simply off limits to the rule of law. It is important to get the right checks and balances so we will have a good chance for debate when the Investigatory Powers Bill passes through Parliament.

I hope that is helpful and thank you once again for taking the time to write.

Yours sincerely,

Justine Greening MP