UK gov't wants database of every phone call and email
The British government (who lost 25 million families' financial data, repeatedly, over the last several years) are proposing to spy on every single email and phone call placed in the country, but it'll be OK because all this highly personal, warrantless surveillance will be "subject to strict safeguards." This will fight terrorism by making the haystack orders of magnitude larger, which will naturally make it easier to locate the Al Quaeda needles.
Funny, for all surveillance, Osama bin Laden is still free -- and we're not. Guess who's winning the "war on terror?"
Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne called the proposals "an Orwellian step too far".Link (Thanks, Al!)He said ministers had "taken leave of their senses if they think that this proposal is compatible with a free country and a free people".
"Given the appalling track record of data loss, this state is simply not to be trusted with such private information," said Mr Huhne.
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Next they'll be banning encryption that's too difficult to crack.
After all, if they do this anyone with a sence of privicy will start to encrypt everything and they'll be then be market for phones etc with inbuilt encryption. These will be deemed a terror threat and hence banned.
the birth of a new industry
On the plus side, if they know everyone that you talk to on the phone, you'll get cops coming to the door telling you to
Sure, that'll only work if the the police are all stereotypical, overbearing Jewish relatives, but what can you do? /me shrugsMO @3: Why would British police speak with a Bostonian accent?
@4: Because the Boston PD trained them in antiterror techniques?
Dear Gordon, repeat after me ...
When a government constantly spies on and records the activities of its citizens, all of them, all of the time, that country is a Police State.
Data loss is a convenient stick with which to beat up on this insane project, but of course it's not the real problem (otherwise we'd all be happy with it so long as they never lost any of the gathered data.) It's fiundamentally wrong in principle.
However a small correction to the story - this isn't yet a government proposal; it's a leak of a civil service paper laying out a possible future project. I suspect it's been leaked by someone who wants to make absolutely certain it gets nowhere near the statute book, ie that the govt don't adopt it as a serious proposal; I imagine the shitstorm of outrage descending on the idea today will guarantee that, quite rightly, it never happens.
Apart from anything else it'd breach several EU laws about rights to privacy and data protection, so it's never going to happen. Thank god.
(Oh, and the civil service (not the govt - please try to keep the distinction clear) only lost the 26m child benefit records once, not multiple times. They have and continue to lose other data, of course, as do probably all other orgs with extensive databases with personal data. Once was enough, of course...
It's being CONSIDERED.
This sort of bollox crops up and is routinely shot down in the UK all the time.
still, shouldn't be passive about it.
Nelson.C "MO @3: Why would British police speak with a Bostonian accent?"
I was going for Jewish. From Brooklyn, maybe? /me shrugs shoulders
When they lost those 26 million files, then 25 million new ones go a long way to refilling the bukkit. They're still 1 million low, though.
"This will fight terrorism by making the haystack orders of magnitude larger, which will naturally make it easier to locate the Al Quaeda needles."
Actually, if they had this information it *would* be easier to spot and catch terrorists - It's just not worth the cost.
Not surprising though, it already records our movements constantly.
If you want to put middle eastern terrorism out of business, use less oil not turn the world into police states.
The terrorists are funded by the oil rich saudis, the oil is only valuable as a a fuel, use less of the fuel, then demand drops, so prices follow, so money stays out of the Saudi's hands so out of the hands of terrorists.
Arms dealers don't take IOUs.
The US could run on it's own oil with a few years of focused work.
Partiotic Environmentalism?
Use less, energy efficient homes and cars, domestic sustainability, endemic solar and wind sourced power, the US could beat the Saudis back into the stone age by force of will , engineering and thought without firing a single bullet.
Hey it's just an idea I've been mulling over.
yeah, they're just jealous that some _other_ organisation has a database of all of their calls and emails....
#1: "Next they'll be banning encryption that's too difficult to crack."
They already did.
If law enforcement asks you to hand over a key and you don't, you're going to jail.
If law enforcement asks you to hand over a key and you *can't* because you don't have it or you forgot it, you're going to jail.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulation_of_Investigatory_Powers_Act
I must admit, since "new labour" came to power, things have gone from bad to worse. We are the most spied upon nation in the world, and are subject to the most politicaly correct government in our history. If this crazy idea ever comes to be, then the good old brits, true to to style, will do absloutely nothing because we lack the backbone. We always shout and stamp like a bad tempered school child, but in the end we always bend over and take it up the ass.
Governments know this, so things will never change for us !!!!!
Santa Maria "We are the most spied upon nation in the world"
That sounds just like something a guilty person would say.
Whad'ja do, huh? C'mon, make it easy on yourself. Your accomplices have already come clean. They all point the finger at you. They say the plan was all yours. The financing, too. I'll just some time to mull that over. Would you like a cup of coffee? You would? We're all out.
Slavery is Security...