Dear Louise Ellman,

I wanted to get in touch about the Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Bill.

I don't know if you've had time to read through it properly, I know that I haven't, as I was away on business at the end of the week.

However, I share the concerns of my peers that the bill is being fast-tracked which prevents proper scrutiny and debate.

When I spoke at the International eGovernment Forum in Bahrain earlier this year [1], I stated that "Public trust in corporations is at a real low, and in the US and UK at least, trust in the media or in the Government isn't any higher.  It's going to take hard work to rebuild that trust. [...] it would be good for government to be helping lead the discussion about [the privacy and security issues raised by data gathering]."

Emergency legislation such as this further erodes the public trust.

Please vote against the bill, or at least try to ensure Parliament has a proper debate about it.

Yours sincerely,

Adrian McEwen
CEO, MCQN Ltd (a Liverpool technology company)
Director, DoES Liverpool

[1] <http://www.mcqn.com/weblog/slides_my_talk_bahrain_international_egovernment_forum_2014>