The police must obtain appropriate permission from a judge to obtain a s.49 RIPA notice.
Before a judge grants the notice, they must be satisfied that:
The key to the protected information is in the possession of the person given notice.
Disclosure is necessary in the interest of national security, in preventing or detecting crime or in the interests of the economic wellbeing of the UK.
Disclosure is proportionate.
If the protected information cannot be obtained by reasonable means.
> So you're saying it's still at the discretion of a single magistrate?
A judge isn't a magistrate, but also: No, of course not. There are different layers of legal protections in the UK. You would be able to appeal the notice itself, you would be able to argue at the court against the decision, and you could make an appeal to a higher court if your were convicted. Furthermore you could make an official complaint about the investigation afterwards.
An interesting observation of the West is that people have an innate trust in the authorities/institutions. It's largely because the institutions have been well run for so long. But as that fades we're left in this twilight zone where you can point to a law like it prevents something. As is often pointed out, the Soviet constitution was much more free than the US one. Even the Romans knew this distinction
> people have an innate trust in the authorities/institutions. It's largely because the institutions have been well run for so long.
There isn't trust of the institutions in the UK. That's why there's so many layers of checks and balances like various courts of appeal and the two houses in the parliament. It's designed with the idea that a rogue player can't go wild.
It's also not true that British institutions have been well run for a long time. Bloody Sunday would be a very visceral and obvious example. Interesting case as well because obviously it took almost half a century but at least there was official recognition and apology from the prime minister after the courts and parliamentary investigative bodies did their thing.
The standard of proof is reasonable grounds, don't forget your passwords because this is an incredibly low bar to pass.
>in preventing or detecting crime
If the police are requesting a s.49 notice it goes without saying that it will be for preventing or detecting crime, but notices can also be issued to ensure the exercise or performance of public bodies, statutory powers, or statutory duties without such a requirement.
>Disclosure is proportionate.
In regards to what is sought to be achieved by the disclosure. It is not disproportionate to request disclosure for the purpose of preventing or detecting crime regardless of how benign that crime is.
>If the protected information cannot be obtained by reasonable means.
The law has been used against people for failing to give up Facebook passwords. The police routinely ask companies for information without a warrant and they're usually legally denied such requests based on GDPR grounds. 'Reasonably practicable' means nothing if it can be bypassed by police trying their luck without a warrant.
As a teen, I do feel like especially within 2025. The world moved way too fast for even me to catch up (well I caught up fine but got burnt out trying to follow geopolitics because I used to like geopolitics before hand)
Maybe Ignorance is bliss.
One of the issues I feel right now with my generation and myself included is that we feel powerless. I truly feel like politics can be better not just in any one country but world-wide. Politics can be over accepting that a lot of economical things have changed from the past and the things working within past weren't built on sustainable practices which have come to bite us now & that's okay. Together we can all concess on a lot of our wants to satisfy the needs of the people. I really don't know & I really don't want to pretend that I know :/
Really feels like shouting in the void sometimes and quite frankly right now too. Just gotta focus on yourself because at the end of the day, to me it feels like noones gonna come to save us. Perhaps we just have to work with some unjust-ness within the system and accept it as is to hopefully get power to influence. But power corrupts :/ AGGH
A lot of my frustrations come from the fact that I feel as if past was unsustainable & now the present a lot of problems feel distractions to the bottom line economical issue. That's okay but we can work together to fix it rather than having our politics be a distraction almost like a circus because at the end of the day, its my generation which is gonna suffer the most whether its in higher unaffordability of housing world-wide or the fearing towards job safety.
The Tories used new legislation to restrict protests, sliced away at union powers even introducing law stating the gov can force 'essential' workers back to work, created and pushed through the Online Safety act (then left labour to enforce it).
And that was only in the few years mess under May/Boris/Rishi
"Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022: Expands police powers to restrict protests based on "serious disruption," including imposing noise limits and start/finish times, reported the BBC.
Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act 2023: Enables employers to mandate service levels during strikes in sectors like health, transport, and fire services, effectively curbing union power, notes Labour Research.
Public Order Act 2023: Introduced further measures against "disruptive" protest tactics, such as locking on, often used by environmental protestors, explain Sage Journals and peoplesmomentum.com.
Nationality and Borders Act 2022: Critiqued for undermining international refugee law and introducing differential treatment for asylum seekers based on their method of arrival, write Sage Journals.
Judicial Review and Courts Act 2022: Critics argue this act weakens judicial oversight, reducing the ability of citizens to challenge government decisions in court, says Zara Sultana on TikTok.
Online Safety Act 2023: While aimed at protecting users, some critics raised concerns about potential impacts on free speech and the regulation of content, suggest Sage Journals. "
I could debate the severity or significance of some of the above, but even at face value these things are in no way comparable to the authoritarian bent of Labour and its policies, thus my point remains.
That's assuming one cares about "attribution" and "people following other links on your site". I.e. that's still being a salesman, maybe with extra steps.
In the alternative case, no value is being taken, you're left exactly with what you had before - nothing gained, nothing lost - but some user somewhere gains a little. Apparently even in 2026, the concept of positive-sum exchange, is unfathomable to so many.
> That's assuming one cares about "attribution" and "people following other links on your site". I.e. that's still being a salesman, maybe with extra steps.
No, it's called being part of a community.
Soup kitchens provide free food without requiring anything in return. That doesn't make it OK for you to take as much as you can get and resell it.
> In the alternative case, no value is being taken, you're left exactly with what you had before - nothing gained, nothing lost - but some user somewhere gains a little. Apparently even in 2026, the concept of positive-sum exchange, is unfathomable to so many.
It's not a positive sum exchange. The community is what is lost.
> Soup kitchens provide free food without requiring anything in return. That doesn't make it OK for you to take as much as you can get and resell it.?
It would be if the kitchen soup had infinite soup available.
Whatever volume of soup you take from the soup kitchen, it's gone from the kitchen. This is not the case with information - you consuming or collecting it does not mean there's less of it at the source.
> No, it's called being part of a community.
Soup kitchens are bad example. They're not there to build a community of poor people. They're there to feed them. The only reason they mind people taking in excess is because supply of soup is finite - take too much, and there won't be enough for someone else. Beyond that, they don't really care what people do with it.
> It's not a positive sum exchange. The community is what is lost.
Nobody other than salesmen and marketers want a community around everything. Especially not when they're looking for facts, or providing a helping hand.
Pay-it-forward is not affected by introduction of an intermediary (AI or otherwise), because it's about giving, not trading.
That's another way of putting this concept that so many don't seem to get: not everything has to be an exchange.
It's focus stacking so basically just compensating for the way macro lenses and large apertures work.
There's nothing artificial about it, the software is just layering the sharpest parts into the photo. It's a common technique, heavily used for things like astro photography and landscape photography as well.
https://www.canon.co.uk/get-inspired/tips-and-techniques/foc...
My understanding is that modern mobile phone cameras do heaps of "stacking" across multiple axes focus, exposure, time etc to compose a photo that saves onto your phone. I believe its one of the reasons for the multiple cameras on most flagship phones, and then each of them might take many "photos" or runs of data from their sensors per "photo" you take. id love to see a good writeup of the process, but my gut says exactly what they do under the hood would be pretty "trade secret"ie.
Had a quick play with my iPhone 15. It doesn't give the sort of magnification you would need for insect close-ups. I will stick with my Nikon DSLR + 100mm macro lens!
Yeah it's far from being as good as a DLSR or mirrorless with a dedicated macro lens. Still, most people reading HN have one in their pocket and it can be a good test to see if you like the idea of macro. It does work with larger insects, on a pixel 10 pro my mantis fill most of the frame.
You can, depending on your definition of "useful". You can buy a cheap laser pointer, take out its lens, and put it over your camera lens. Tape it onto the lens for a temporary janky version or make a 3d-printed mount for something much better that you can easily take on/off.
I've personally found this little hack useful, but then again I don't have a DSLR and macro lens!
There's also digital ocean and hertzner cloud if you don't want to enter the AWS money pit. Though if you're looking to become a forensic accountant, AWS billing is great training
Assuming bog standard lambda they'd have to rate limit a whole Aws region lambda range which would risk affecting legit usage.
Bit of an arse way to behave against a service
Before a judge grants the notice, they must be satisfied that:
The key to the protected information is in the possession of the person given notice. Disclosure is necessary in the interest of national security, in preventing or detecting crime or in the interests of the economic wellbeing of the UK. Disclosure is proportionate. If the protected information cannot be obtained by reasonable means.
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