British Government Wishes To Spy On All Phone Usage, Internet Also

Under the believable premise of the ongoing war on terrorism, the British Home Office wants to keep a record of all mobile phone calls and text messages sent for at least 12 months. All of it.

Whilst an honourable premise, the implications become worrying as they intend to provide permission to hundreds of public organisations including local councils and health authorities access to the highly sensitive data. These are councils which find difficulty in organising weekly rubbish collection, and a government with a history of ‘losing’ top secret data being entrusted with reams more personal info…not a good sign.

The telecommunications firms would be privy to this Orwellian dream, engaging in over a billion data transfers and storing all their data into a central server at a cost of over £50 million a year… Whilst actual phone calls and texts will not be saved, their destination and duration will be. The part which will send shivers up the spines of naughty web folk is that every single internet search will be retained.

Just watch who you copy into the next mail badmouthing Gordon Brown, the jackbooted stormtroopers and thought police may not be that far away… It is simply a power which is open to potential misuse in an attempt to control our lives, something the opposition political parties have been very vocal to complain about, calling this a ‘snooper’s charter’.

Quote of the day goes to the Lib Dem home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne, epitomising a good point well made: “We will be told it is for use in combating terrorism and organised crime but… it will soon be used to spy on ordinary people’s kids, pets and bins.”

Let’s hope it comes into play later rather than sooner, at least after I delete my internet search history…

Source: BBC News