Jenni Russell: The all-seeing state is about to end privacy as we know it | Comment is free | The Guardian
You might suppose that the economic tornado hitting Britain would cause the government to focus its energy and resources very tightly on the political projects that are of undoubted value. This is not, after all, the moment to be wasting either political or financial capital. But you would be wrong. Faced with a crisis that it patently can't control, the government is instead seeking to exert power where it still can: over us. The state's latest plan to watch us makes every other imminent intrusion seem limited. Next month's Queen's speech will contain a brief reference to an innocuous-sounding communications data bill. But what this means is the development of a centralised database that will track, in real time, every call we make, every website we visit, and every text and email we send. That information will then be stored and analysed - perhaps for decades. It will mean the end of privacy as we know it.
You might suppose that the economic tornado hitting Britain would cause the government to focus its energy and resources very tightly on the political projects that are of undoubted value. This is not, after all, the moment to be wasting either political or financial capital. But you would be wrong. Faced with a crisis that it patently can't control, the government is instead seeking to exert power where it still can: over us.
The state's latest plan to watch us makes every other imminent intrusion seem limited. Next month's Queen's speech will contain a brief reference to an innocuous-sounding communications data bill. But what this means is the development of a centralised database that will track, in real time, every call we make, every website we visit, and every text and email we send. That information will then be stored and analysed - perhaps for decades. It will mean the end of privacy as we know it.
Also:
ABC News: Exclusive: Inside Account of U.S. Eavesdropping on Americans
Despite pledges by President George W. Bush and American intelligence officials to the contrary, hundreds of US citizens overseas have been eavesdropped on as they called friends and family back home, according to two former military intercept operators who worked at the giant National Security Agency (NSA) center in Fort Gordon, Georgia.
'Terrorist' is literally the new black - it's being used as a convenient excuse to dole out the kind of authoritarian abuse that the sus laws were notorious for.
And if the Treasury can confiscate foreign assets, it can just as easily confiscate personal assets in a time of 'national emergency.'
The fact that they are US citizens calling from abroad does raise an issue that has yet to be resolved. How can it be determined that the person abroad happens to be a US citizen?
But the real problem- highly impractical- is the proposal to take measures to control internet communication (Skype, email), as the Guardian points out.
The ammount of hard drives you would need to record the data for this would put a severe crimp on the UK ever meeting its carbon emissions targets. Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.
Pushed as usual with by the terrorpropaganda and copyright lobbies. A vote for PES is a vote for EPP! A vote for EPP is a vote for PES! Support the coalition, vote EPP-PES in 2009!
