Officials from the top of Government to lowly council officers will be given unprecedented powers to access details of every phone call in Britain under laws coming into force tomorrow.

 

The new rules compel phone companies to retain information, however private, about all landline and mobile calls, and make them available to some 795 public bodies and quangos.

 

The move, enacted by the personal decree of Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, will give police and security services a right they have long demanded: to delve at will into the phone records of British citizens and businesses.

 

But the same powers will also be handed to the tax authorities, 475 local councils, and a host of other organisations, including the Food Standards Agency, the Department of Health, the Immigration Service, the Gaming Board and the Charity Commission. The initiative, formulated in the wake of the Madrid and London terrorist attacks of 2004 and 2005, was put forward as a vital tool in the fight against terrorism. However, civil liberties campaigners say the new powers amount to a 'free for all' for the State snooping on its citizens.

 

And they angrily questioned why the records were being made available to so many organisations. Similar provisions are being brought in across Europe, but under much tighter regulation. In Britain, say critics, private and sensitive information will inevitably fall into the wrong hands.

 

Records will detail precisely what calls are made, their time and duration, and the name and address of the registered user of the phone.

 

The files will even reveal where people are when they made mobile phone calls. By knowing which mast transmitted the signal, officials will be able to pinpoint the source of a call to within a few feet. This can even be used to track someone's route if, for example, they make a call from a moving car.

 

Files will also be kept on the sending and receipt of text messages.

 

By 2009 the Government plans to extend the rules to cover internet use: the websites we have visited, the people we have emailed and phone calls made over the net.

 

See rest of article here http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/pages/live/a...d=1770&ct=5

Ridiculous. Police, MI5 and other security organisations, fine. But the government's completely undermining any chance of public support for this by granting access to so many other less vital organisations.

The Mail are probably exaggerating. My bet is most of those organisations would have to be granted permission to access any individual information, I doubt they'll have unconditional access to everyone's. I do think this is a necessary step.

The Food Standards Agency?

Does this mean they can spy on how many pizzas a person orders over the phone? lol

Yet another example of the Nu Labor, control freak Police State that we are all living under.. Anyone who can call this a "free society" is just fooling themselves... -_- You used to need a court order to access people's phone records and have a damn good reason for doing so. "The War on Terror" is always the feeble excuse used for the continued erosions of our rights and our civil liberties... But the facts are, the terror attacks on 7/7/2005 happened because Security Forces dropped the ball, they actually had at least two of these guys under surveillance, and presumably, they actually DID have access to these peoples' mobile phone records....

unfortunately we live in a world where security is being undermined, greater surveilance is the automatic response. nobody wants it, but IF it prevents another terror attack then maybe its an unpallatable price we need to pay.

unfortunately we live in a world where security is being undermined, greater surveilance is the automatic response. nobody wants it, but IF it prevents another terror attack then maybe its an unpallatable price we need to pay.

 

BULL. The Security Forces had several of these guys under surveillance LONG BEFORE July 7th, THEY DROPPED THE BALL, simple as, and then tried to make out that the whole thing was a total "bolt out of the blue" and that the terrorists were "clean skins". What utter garbage!!!! These measures are NOT NECESSARY... What is necessary is for the bloody so-called "security forces" to actually do their jobs a bit better when they DO have viable suspects under surveillance..... <_<

 

And I am fully convinced that 9/11 was also preventable....

 

i didnt doubt that the security forces dropped a bollock, it doesnt nulify the fact that greater security is needed.

i didnt doubt that the security forces dropped a bollock, it doesnt nulify the fact that greater security is needed.

 

Why do you always justify erosions or our rights and our civil liberties in the name of the supposed "greater good"....? Dont you actually realise that more and more we are beginning to resemble some sort of tinpot dictatorship the more we erode these rights...? This is exactly what the Terrorists want - our free, democratic society destroyed... Every time you justify these measures, you play into the hands of Terrorists.....

 

Why do you always justify erosions or our rights and our civil liberties in the name of the supposed "greater good"....? Dont you actually realise that more and more we are beginning to resemble some sort of tinpot dictatorship the more we erode these rights...? This is exactly what the Terrorists want - our free, democratic society destroyed... Every time you justify these measures, you play into the hands of Terrorists.....

 

............and the alternative is? give them free range of the phonelines/internet? idealy yes, but we dont live in an ideal world. the only rights that are being eroded are criminals. i couldnt care less if my dna is on a database, or that my phones are being tapped...i have nothing to hide.

 

there are elements within our society that do not respect our freedoms, they need to be stopped.

............and the alternative is? give them free range of the phonelines/internet? idealy yes, but we dont live in an ideal world. the only rights that are being eroded are criminals. i couldnt care less if my dna is on a database, or that my phones are being tapped...i have nothing to hide.

 

Who said anything about "free reign" for criminals and terrorists..? What I am actually asking is for the Police and the Security Forces to do their DAMN JOBS PROPERLY!!!! IE, gather credible evidence, seek court orders to intercept phone calls, emails, mail, etc, surveil viable criminal and terrorist suspects and ONLY viable terrorist and criminal suspects, NOT the bloody general population.... I do NOT believe in this "blank cheque" approach that you advocate.... The Police and the (in)Security forces have proven themselves utterly incapable of using the extensive powers they already possess effectively (might interest you to know that MI5 and MI6 already actually have MORE sweeping powers than the CIA or FBI do...), and you actually want to give them MORE powers to (ab)use or screw up...????

 

And the facts are mate, if Thatcher was advocating this sort of thing, you'd be the first in the queue to object... You make excuses for the war crimes, the erosion of civil liberties and the growing "police state" culture of the Nu Labor Govt, and yet you were the first to deplore the police state actions of Thatcher during the Miners' Strike, the Greenham common protests, etc; and you denounce Thatcher as a War Criminal for sinking the Belgrano (which it was, but at least no actual civilians were lost aboard the Belgrano...), and then say very little about B-Liar and his infinitely WORSE war crimes against the civilians of Iraq...

 

In short, you're a hypocrite mate, and you make excuses for the fukkin' Nu Labor Govt that you certainly would not make for the Tories during the Thatcher era.... Even many arch Tories are against these sorts of measures....

... but its the 2000's not the 80's, times have changed radically and new measures have to be considered which is all im doing, theres no comparison between the 80's and now, we live in a totally different world.

... but its the 2000's not the 80's, times have changed radically and new measures have to be considered which is all im doing, theres no comparison between the 80's and now, we live in a totally different world.

 

Yeah, in the 80s, we had a very big terrorist threat with bombs going off every other week in NI and the mainland.... Yeah, SUCH a big difference mate.... :lol: :lol:

 

Sorry, dont buy it.... Just because the fukkin' Yanks are on the receiving end of it now, the whole bloody world has to change... Fukk that, they had it coming after all the sh!t they contributed to in NI and the Middle East.... <_<

There were far more bombs let off by the IRA and INLA than have ever been let off by Al Qaeda in the UK

 

This is just an excuse to erode civil liberties and invade privacy, it will not just be used for terrorism but to spy on political opponents, political activists, animal rights campaigners, prominent opposition supporters and so on, this sort of $h!t is what you expect from Robert Mugabe

 

 

Yeah, in the 80s, we had a very big terrorist threat with bombs going off every other week in NI and the mainland.... Yeah, SUCH a big difference mate.... :lol: :lol:

 

Sorry, dont buy it.... Just because the fukkin' Yanks are on the receiving end of it now, the whole bloody world has to change... Fukk that, they had it coming after all the sh!t they contributed to in NI and the Middle East.... <_<

 

oh come on scott... theres no simularity at all between the ira's reletively crude, dated techniques and the high tech world we live in today.

 

my point stands.... good day :)

There were far more bombs let off by the IRA and INLA than have ever been let off by Al Qaeda in the UK

 

it will not just be used for terrorism but to spy on political opponents, political activists, animal rights campaigners, prominent opposition supporters and so on,

 

Spot on Craig... We've already seen the sort of dirty tricks tactics this Govt tries to employ on its political opponents - eg the smear campaigns against George Galloway and Tommy Sheridan....

 

There were far more bombs let off by the IRA and INLA than have ever been let off by Al Qaeda in the UK

 

This is just an excuse to erode civil liberties and invade privacy, it will not just be used for terrorism but to spy on political opponents, political activists, animal rights campaigners, prominent opposition supporters and so on, this sort of $h!t is what you expect from Robert Mugabe

 

 

lol. as if theyd want to listen in to MY life! and theres a section in the animal rights group that NEED spying on.... letting mink go, bombing scientists, digging up corpses.

 

let them look...only people with anything to hide has anything to worry about, and its an elected government, not a totalitarian state.

Spot on Craig... We've already seen the sort of dirty tricks tactics this Govt tries to employ on its political opponents - eg the smear campaigns against George Galloway and Tommy Sheridan....

 

smear campaigns are as old as politics itself. always has been and always will be...nowt new.

lol. as if theyd want to listen in to MY life! and theres a section in the animal rights group that NEED spying on.... letting mink go, bombing scientists, digging up corpses.

 

let them look...only people with anything to hide has anything to worry about, and its an elected government, not a totalitarian state.

 

I have nothing to hide either but I believe in the principle of privacy

 

If someone is suspected of planning a terrorist attack or whatever then the police/government should produce the evidence and suspicion to a judge and let the judge give an order for phones and emails or whatever to be tapped, no problem with that, what I don't want is my privacy taken away and eroded under the name of terrorism.

 

My telephone calls and emails really are quite boring and of no interest to anyone lol but out of principle they should be private communications

 

The fact that they want to extend this to monitoring everyone shouls they so wish shows that it is the government who have something to hide

Edited October 1, 200717 yr by Vic Vega

oh come on scott... theres no simularity at all between the ira's reletively crude, dated techniques and the high tech world we live in today.

 

Wrong, wrong, wrong again... The IRA were far from crude, their terror tactics were incredibly sophisticated, well thought out, planned and executed.... What's so "sophisticated" about flying a jet into a building....???? :rolleyes: