Private sector to track email, calls\texts and internet traffic?

Indy500

Indy500

Indy500

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/dec/31/privacy-civil-liberties

The private sector will be asked to manage and run a communications database that will keep track of everyone's calls, emails, texts and internet use under a key option contained in a consultation paper to be published next month by Jacqui Smith, the home secretary.

A cabinet decision to put the management of the multibillion pound database of all UK communications traffic into private hands would be accompanied by tougher legal safeguards to guarantee against leaks and accidental data losses.

But in his strongest criticism yet of the superdatabase, Sir Ken Macdonald, the former director of public prosecutions, who has firsthand experience of working with intelligence and law enforcement agencies, told the Guardian such assurances would prove worthless in the long run and warned it would prove a "hellhouse" of personal private information.

Macdonald, who left his post as DPP in October, told the Guardian: "The tendency of the state to seek ever more powers of surveillance over its citizens may be driven by protective zeal. But the notion of total security is a paranoid fantasy which would destroy everything that makes living worthwhile. We must avoid surrendering our freedom as autonomous human beings to such an ugly future. We should make judgments that are compatible with our status as free people."

The home secretary postponed the introduction of legislation to set up the superdatabase in October and instead said she would publish a consultation paper in the new year setting out the proposal and the safeguards needed to protect civil liberties.

The Home Office's interception modernisation programme, which is working on the superdatabase proposal, argues that it is no longer good enough for communications companies to be left to retrieve such data when requested by the police and intelligence services. A Home Office spokeswoman said last night the changes were needed so law enforcement agencies could maintain their ability to tackle serious crime and terrorism.
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Sir Ken MacDonald is not the only significant person to criticise this plan:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/uks-database-plan-condemned-by-europe-1218246.html

"Mr Hammarberg, the Council of Europe's Commissioner for Human Rights, told The Independent that surveillance technologies are developing at breathtaking speed. In a direct criticism of Britain, he said: "It is therefore worrying that new legislation proposals intend to expand the authorities' power to allow personal data collection and sharing]....[This is particularly relevant to the UK, where important private data has been lost and ended up in the public domain."

The Home Office is still considering the impact of the judgment before deciding how to address the concerns raised by the court and the commissioner. But the Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, says she wants to press ahead with bringing in powers to monitor email and internet traffic to help fight terrorism and crime, although ministers would not seek the right to see the content of internet communications.
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So my local jobcentre disappeared, along with 200 others across the country at the same time as the unemployment numbers doubled - but the government is going to put aside an estimated £12 billion for this project? Then of course there's whole privacy argument and the data losses left and right from existing databases. Maybe it is time to leave the UK...
 
Repost, unfortunately it's what happens when you let the mentally insane and power hungry into government, quickly turns fascist. You have to collect the data first, then you can discriminate against the people like the nazis did.
 
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Does Gordon brown pull another new idea out of his rear everyday? Why are people not rioting etc? I hope someone finds him in a dark alley and rips his crossed eyed face apart.
 
Energize said:
Repost, unfortunately it's what happens when you let the mentally insane and power hungry into government, quickly turns fascist. You have to collect the data first, then you can discriminate against the people like the nazis did.
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I did post about similar talk before, but more details were released today (its actually being put in writing after being delayed, for one).
 
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