p2pnet - rss feed: UK online Big Brother plan
p2pnet news | Politics:- Britain is already infamous for its pervasive ‘anti-crime, anti-terrorism’ closed-circuit TV systems, and now the government is calling for a database holding details of every phone call, email and time spent online by the public.
“Internet service providers (ISPs) and telecoms companies would hand over the records to the Home Office under plans put forward by officials,” says Times Online.
Data would be held for at least 12 months, “and the police and security services would be able to access it if given permission from the courts,” says the story.
Some 57 billion text messages were sent in Britain last year, while an estimated 3 billion e-mails are sent every day, it says.
The Big Brother plan, “prompted alarm about the country’s growing surveillance culture, as it follows on from plans for databases for the ID cards scheme and NHS electronic patient records,” says the Guardian.
“Industry sources have warned that a single database would be more vulnerable to attack and abuse,” it says.
“There are also concerns about the ability of the government to manage a system containing billions of records.”
The government has already come under fire for its, “apparent inability to manage huge computer projects,” says the story, adding:
“The Passport Agency’s new system was branded a fiasco in 2006 when it went online but was unable to issue new passports, and the creation of the new NHS electronic records database is currently £7bn over budget and well behind schedule.”
.
.Stumble It!
Times Online - ‘Big Brother’ database for phones and e-mails, May 20, 2008
Guardian - Alarm at plan for central store of telecoms records, May 20, 2008
Use free p2pnet newsfeeds for your site. It’s really easy!
Subscribe
to p2pnet.net | | rss feed: http://p2pnet.net/p2p.rss | | Mobile - http://p2pnet.net/index-wml.phpNet access blocked by government restrictions? Use Psiphon from the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto. Go here for details. Download here.
May 20th, 2008 at 7:03 am
A number of obvious stumbling blocks come to mind.
This would cost ISP’s probably more than they could afford without vast charge increases to keep entire record of every single communication for years.
I imagine a governments centralised implementation would initially be estimated to be affordable and practical in the outset, as tendered by some dodgy company owned by the uncle’s son of the politician in charge of the project; quickly spiralling into an endless money pit of infinite problems and setbacks through multiple administrations.
Of course, there would be hundreds of cases of people having access to this great central database and using it for blackmail, manipulation of texts etc. to incriminate and god knows what else. I’d imagine the police and politicians and those connected with supposedly looking after Queen and country will be the first to use it for their evil ends..
Just how many ‘terrorists’ have been caught with all this invasive technology so far and is it worth maybe saving a comparative handful of lives across the globe if we are all constantly under extreme surveillance? I don’t buy the “If you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear” BS myself..
May 20th, 2008 at 9:35 am
Despite all of the UK govts public denigrations of China, it actually looks to them as its role model.
May 20th, 2008 at 5:02 pm
Well it could catch terrorists/criminals for what 1 year max before they just use encryption.
It will end up as a very expensive database containing spam and encrypted emails.
No cctv camera/data collection system will stop those determined to do wrong it will just penalize honest people.
Only good thing is that no more government emails can be lost/misplaced!!! when they should have been released to a court etc..
May 21st, 2008 at 5:32 pm
1984 is finally upon us, read it and weep.