Civic Party says covert surveillance bill would let the government snoop on whoever it wants
The covert surveillance bill not only targets drug traffickers and murderers but effectively gives the government broad powers to spy on whoever it wants, a Civic Party lawmaker has claimed.
Legal sector legislator Margaret Ng Ngoi-yee said her party was considering tabling more than a dozen amendments to the bill, which the government is hoping lawmakers will endorse tomorrow for it to be passed before July 12, when the Legislative Council goes into recess.
Tempers flared in yesterday's bill committee meeting as legislators met for the 16th day to scrutinise the proposed law.
'What people have to understand is you don't have to be a criminal before you are snooped on. The privacy of your own home is lost if you don't draw the curtains. Serious crime as defined in the bill is actually not very serious at all,' Ms Ng said. 'This bill has a low threshold and allows very broad spying.'
Ms Ng said while the purposes for which authorities can legitimately snoop under the law were broad, the protection it offered was limited. 'The bill covers interception of postal items but not DHL packages. And they don't need authorisation from a judge if the surveillance is through the use of undercover agents. The bill is not what it says but what it doesn't say.'
The bill proposes two kinds of authorisation for clandestine operations. In those cases considered less intrusive, internal authorisation will suffice, while in other cases judicial approval must be sought.