UK Government to spy on every phone call, text and email
By Dave Parrack
If you’re currently resident in the UK, expect your life to become a lot less private over the next few years. The British Government is considering plans to spy on every phone call, text, and email sent and received. All in the name of national security.
At the moment, life in the UK is relatively free. Okay, so we’re technically all subjects to the monarchy rather than being citizens, but in every other respect, life is good. But things are changing, as just like in the US after 9/11, national security is being used as an excuse to take away freedoms and tighten the authorities’ watch on ordinary people.
We’ve already seen the idea of a national identity card proposed and accepted, an idea that caused outrage amongst law-abiding citizens seeing their freedoms being taken away from them. And now, according to The Telegraph, comes news of a £12 billion eavesdropping programme that will see every phone call, text, and email monitored and stored for future reference.
If the proposals are accepted, a huge central database will be created to store each and every piece of communication that takes place involving UK residents. At the moment, MI5 has to obtain special permission to intercept email and Internet communications, but this would all change, with GCHQ being able to monitor every single thing live as it occurs.
The proposals are being pushed under the ever-present blanket of “the fight against terrorism”. But while no-one doubts the importance of being able to stop terrorist attacks and capturing the people behind such atrocities, civil liberties surely shouldn’t just be ignored as a result.
There is also the question of how long and how safely this information will be stored. There has been numerous incidences of data being mislaid or stolen over the past few years, and if that were to happen in this case, the results could be terrible.
Then there’s the cost, which at $12 billion is much more than the already proposed ID card system. I’d personally rather that money was spent on more important things such as education and healthcare. It shouldn’t be spent on enabling all of us to be watched 24 hours, 7 days a week.
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Read more entries by Dave Parrack.
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October 6th, 2008
It’s time for us to take back the power by not giving them our money. Down with plutocracy.
October 6th, 2008
There is any “right to privacy” in the UK?
October 25th, 2008
The news that the government now wants to track our mobile phone calls, texts, emails and internet browsing habits has got me enraged. For the past 11 years, this government has sought more and more control over its citizens, from installing 4.2m CCTV cameras, to the suggestion that we must respond to more and more intrusive questions when they complete the next census. It has simply got to stop.
On this occasion, I have done something about it, in my own small way. I have written an article outlining what the government is seeking to do and my views. But, I have also produced a ‘draft’ letter that can be personalised and sent to local MP’s. I am urging other likeminded people to reproduce the article, to include their own comments, after all, not everyone will agree with all my comments and then publicise it. Maybe we can start a programme where people start to bombard their MP’s with a demand that they do not support the latest data communication bill. The link is here if anyone would care to take a look.
http://www.power-to-the-people.co.uk/2008/10/public-call-time-big-brother-britain/