Posted October 5, 200816 yr Every person in Britain could have their internet history, email records and telephone calls tracked under a proposed £12billion plan by ministers. The system - dubbed 'sinister' by the Tories - would see hundreds of hidden devices planted to tap into communications on the internet and via mobile phone providers. And a national database would be created to store the information which officials say would help in the fight against terrorism and organised crime. £1billion has already been allocated to the Government's central intelligence agency GCHQ to finance the first stage of the controversial project. The big brother scheme is set to attract fierce opposition from human rights groups. Dominic Grieve, the shadow home secretary, said: "Any suggestion of the Government using existing powers to intercept communications data without public discussion is going to sound extremely sinister." Around 57 billion text messages were sent in the UK last year while the number of broadband internet connections has grown to 18 million. Each day three billion e-mails are sent raising fears about the security of such a big database. MI5 currently conducts limited e-mail and website surveillance, but still requires permission from the Home Secretary on a case-by-case basis to carry out the checks. If the new proposals are implemented, the intercepts would be comprehensive and automatic. The Home Office said no formal decision had been taken and said it "did not recognise" the £12bn price tag being put on the system in some quarters. But sources said officials had made clear that ministers had agreed "in principle" to the programme. More details of the plan are expected to be revealed in the Queen's Speech next month. Source: Mail on Sunday How do you feel about the Government being able to see your texts,emails and internet history?
October 5, 200816 yr My worries aren't about this government being able to see my texts, e-mails and internet history, but more as to what would happen in the increasingly likely event that we elect an extremist right-wing government with enough of a majority to avoid a hung parliament, but still a massive deal of opposition. How would the opposition co-ordinate a possible rebellion then?
October 5, 200816 yr They can f*** off as far as i'm concerned. This is going to help with terrorism how? Talk about trying to find a needle in a haystack.
October 5, 200816 yr Well I was thinking I was going to be voting Labour until I saw this today -_- Now I'm not sure if I'll vote at all!
October 6, 200816 yr In a time of financial uncertainty some f***wit rolls out a £12 billion proposal to make it look as though something's being done against 'terrorism'? f*** sake. Ask the nation if they're more concerned currently about alleged terrorist activity or their own financial security and I think you'll find nearly 100% respond the latter. I'm against ID cards and I'm against this.
October 6, 200816 yr And some people out there still refuse to believe that we are increasingly living in an Orwellian Police State... This is just outrageous.. Could you imagine people's post being intercepted, tracked and checked in this manner. Amounts to the same thing in my book... Prisoners and known Paedophiles have their emails and letters checked for a reason, the people of this country should NOT be treated like criminals simply because of a few terrorists, paedoes or whatever being out there.... £12 billion of taxpayers money being spent on this lunacy is not gonna get anyone's vote....
October 6, 200816 yr WHAT!!!!!! i'm sorry but we have the right to some f***ing privacy. If the government and police have no just cause to suspect you of terrorism etc. then they should keep their noses OUT of other peoples business. The government can't be trusted with our details, time and time again they have proven that they just lose them <_<. Personally i don't some board civil servant poking through my emails going "Oi! Steve come here! This one is on the Sugababes Email list, and has just wasted £60 buying tickets for their next concert. What a mong......" etc.
October 6, 200816 yr I can maybe see some of the positives in this ("it's better to be safe than sorry" and also "if you've got nothing to hide, you've got nothing to fear"... two horrible cliches, I know), but I couldn't even think about supporting this until the Government can guarantee this information would be kept secure. Considering all the mishaps they have had with data losses in the last year, I am not at all confident this would be the case.
October 6, 200816 yr I can maybe see some of the positives in this ("it's better to be safe than sorry" and also "if you've got nothing to hide, you've got nothing to fear"... two horrible cliches, I know), but I couldn't even think about supporting this until the Government can guarantee this information would be kept secure. Considering all the mishaps they have had with data losses in the last year, I am not at all confident this would be the case. But still even if they did check all our mail, they'd still f*** something up and miss something out. It's just a total invasion of privacy.
October 6, 200816 yr My worries aren't about this government being able to see my texts, e-mails and internet history, but more as to what would happen in the increasingly likely event that we elect an extremist right-wing government with enough of a majority to avoid a hung parliament, but still a massive deal of opposition. How would the opposition co-ordinate a possible rebellion then? Good point. Like Danny said. I've got nothing to hide why should i care? Its not as if some goverment person will really care what we're doing if its not really relavent. It'll be second nature to see odd stuff.
October 7, 200816 yr I can maybe see some of the positives in this ("it's better to be safe than sorry" and also "if you've got nothing to hide, you've got nothing to fear"... two horrible cliches, I know), but I couldn't even think about supporting this until the Government can guarantee this information would be kept secure. Considering all the mishaps they have had with data losses in the last year, I am not at all confident this would be the case. Yes, they are cliches, and I am frankly sick of hearing them used to justify the 'Big Brother Is Watching You' (in fact I would argue that the show "Big Brother" is an ideological construct used to soften us up to the idea of living our whole lives 'on CCTV camera', think about that when you're setting up your web-cams for your Face Book and My Space pages.....) mentality of this Govt to be honest.... ID cards, biometric scans, DNA databases, and now this cr@p.... Just wondering when the barcodes tatooed on our necks and microchip implants in our brains is gonna happen..... <_< Great authors such as Orwell, Kafka, Huxley, Gibson and Dick were warning us about exactly this sort of thing decades ago... And a lot of what they wrote about is becoming a reality, Jeremy Bentham's idea of the "Panopticon" prison can be used as a wider metaphor for the proliferation of CCTV in this country also.... We are the most spied upon people in Europe, and like idiots we actually tolerate this sh!t....
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