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UK Government To Outsource Data Snooping and Storage
Posted by
timothy
on Fri Jan 02, 2009 06:40 AM
from the avoid-conflict-of-interest dept.
from the avoid-conflict-of-interest dept.
bone_idol writes "The Guardian is reporting that 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. Also covered on the BBC."
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Left on a train (Score:5, Funny)
At least it's less lightly to be left on the train, if it's not in government hands.
Re:Left on a train (Score:5, Insightful)
You wish given that UK government IT is all outsourced to private sector cowboys.
Parent
Re:Left on a train (Score:4, Insightful)
At least it's less lightly to be left on the train, if it's not in government hands.
To be replaced by the private company selling it to the highest bidder?
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I'll wager that both will happen... probably the same week
Re:Left on a train (Score:4, Insightful)
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No. Their employees just don't travel by train.
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Quite true to a point. The problem is that the UK government, and especially the current US administration, seems to believe that privatizing government functions is some kind of cure-all. Yes, there are many functions that should be privatized, but there are so many things being privatized (roads, General Jim's Army [a.k.a. Blackwater
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Governments outsource plenty, and have for a very long time.
This is true, however weather it is sensible I'm not so sure. All comes down to trust in the end, do you trust the private sector with all your details? And do you trust them to behave ethically when the inevitable conflicts of interests occur?
I personally do not, and would nationalise everything that could be, banks, land, public transport, etc... but that's just me.
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Do you really want your bank run by the government?
Hell no! I want it to be run by greedy bastards that over lend sink the nation in debt and then crawl to the government crying for bailout money then attempt to pocket has much of that money into their accounts as possible.
What we need is a small government that just ensures taxes are properly conducted to nice millionaires.
Re:Left on a train (Score:5, Funny)
They should outsource it to the train companies, cut out the middle man.
Parent
Hooray for Crapita et al. (Score:2)
Slippery slope (Score:4, Insightful)
Senior Whitehall officials responsible for planning for a new database say there is a significant difference between having access to "communications data" - names and addresses of emails or telephone numbers, for example - and the actual contents of the communications. "We have been very clear that there are no plans for a database containing any content of emails, texts or conversations," the spokeswoman said.
Pretty slip indeed.
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no plans for a database
"Oops, your communications data got in my database!"
"Hey, your database is encapsulating my communications data!"
- brought to you by Hershey's Reese's Foreign Government Datamining Division. We care about your data.
We're screwed (Score:5, Funny)
And as Jacqui drafts the invitation to tender document in Word - up pops clippy...
"I see you are outsourcing Government IT requirements. What level of cock-up and overspend do you want?
Shall I insert the address for:
a) EDS
b) Capita
c) SAP
d) IBM
"
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missed the issue (Score:5, Insightful)
Don't be concerned at who is holding the data rather be concerned that the data is actually being collected.... (it's probably safer if the government isn't managing this anyway)
Standard practice (Score:5, Insightful)
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Jackboots Jacqui strikes again (Score:5, Insightful)
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Fascists - you mean those people infamous for killing lots of people because they didn't like them ? That's the best example you could come up with to justify lynch mobs ? The most infamous lynch mob in history ?
As for your idiotic strawman, no, you don't have to roll out the red carpet for fascists. You have many tools in your disposal to oppose them: the soap box, the
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No, I'm equating fascism (rightly or wrongly) with all statements of "might makes right".
There is; and when you're suggesting that someone be hanged by a lamppost because you disagree with them, the line has been crossed.
Re:Jackboots Jacqui strikes again (Score:5, Insightful)
What the hell is wrong with that woman? More to the point, what the hell is wrong with us? In any sane society a person like that would've been strung up from a lamppost a long time ago.
She's the product of a party which is obsessed with micromanaging the citizens of the country. A party which got to power by ruthlessly instilling discipline within its own membership - in other words, "follow the party line to the letter or get out".
Jack Straw and David Blunkett were almost as bad. Tony Blair has openly gone on record as saying that he doesn't consider the civil liberties argument against ID cards to be a particularly strong one.
There is no fscking chance you'll find anyone in a remotely senior position within the current Labour party who's prepared to contradict the party line - particularly when the arguments presented in favour always boil down to "it will drastically reduce crime" - never something that's easy to argue against.
Parent
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She's the product of a party which is obsessed with micromanaging the citizens of the country. A party which got to power by ruthlessly instilling discipline within its own membership - in other words, "follow the party line to the letter or get out".
LOL WUT?
Have you ever been a member of the Labour Party? Pretty much every meeting I went to was devoted to people carping about the leadership.
Re:Jackboots Jacqui strikes again (Score:4, Informative)
That's a nice theory, but it's actually not about the party. The Home Office has been pushing for these powers since long before New Labour came to power.
In fact, the Tories under John Major were pushing for ID cards in 1995 - a move opposed, ironically by Tony Blair [the-statio...fice.co.uk].
If you think that a Tory government will be any different then, you will be sorely disappointed.
http://www.privacyinternational.org/article.shtml?cmd%5B347%5D=x-347-61886 [privacyinternational.org]
Parent
Re:Jackboots Jacqui strikes again (Score:5, Informative)
Parent
Re:Jackboots Jacqui strikes again (Score:5, Informative)
I've signed several of those petitions. They do nothing -- someone writes a response, and the issue is then ignored.
If you have the time, write to your MP. Go here: http://www.writetothem.com/ [writetothem.com]
I haven't written to my MP yet, but I have written to the Mayor of London a couple of times. I received real, written responses and felt it was a much better use of my time than signing 10 spur-of-the-moment petitions. I'm currently waiting for a response from Boris Johnstone after responding to his transport policy document.
Parent
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I think what is wrong with Citizen Smith is clear. If you look at her, she's a woman who is neither attractive nor intelligent. She's obese too. I wold guarantee she was unpopular in school. Her brooding resentment of her then peers has resulted in her current state of mind -- revenge. Her weight denotes her greediness an
Happy New Year 1984 ! (Score:2, Informative)
TPB's new year celebration is more true than ever :-/
ITIL (Score:5, Funny)
We can't afford to do it to you... (Score:2)
...so we are going to insist that you do it to yourselves.
I wonder when the British people will realize that the cost of non-compliance will be nothing if no one complies.
Impeachment (Score:2)
People who have something to hide, can. (Score:4, Interesting)
The thing about this whole database, is that it will only be able to log activity of people who don't think they have anything to hide, in other words, you and me. The average person.
Criminals can just SSH tunnel everything through a server in some far away country. They will have no idea what those people are doing.
So forgive me for seeing this as just an invasion of privacy as opposed to any serious way of fighting crime.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Until they make the use of SSH tunnels or even encryption illegal. After all, if you have nothing to hide, why would you even consider using either? - or so their argument will go.
Lucius Fox (Score:2)
Don't worry... all we have to do is type in 'Lucius Fox' to self-detonate the tracking system!
No one should have that much power.
(... wow I feel like a loser)
Re:Please... (Score:5, Informative)
Has anyone, from a sane country, got any room left? I want to leave the UK now, please?
Well, you can choose any country in the EU with no difficulty. Anywhere in the EEA isn't much harder. Some Commonwealth countries, like Canada, Australia and New Zealand, want skilled immigrants.
Or you could just complain about it online :-).
Parent
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He asked for a sane country. "Any country in the EU" won't do.
I live in Finland. We here have internet censorship.
It is illegal to question holocaust in France. (Not that I personally would deny it but making it illegal to deny takes it off the list of sane countries)
I could probably find examples from most other countries too. It is really hard to find a western country which still respects freedom.
Switzerland would do but they have pretty strict immigration policy...
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He asked for a sane country. "Any country in the EU" won't do.
Ah, sorry, I missed the "sane" part. Many other EU countries seem saner than the UK, although from my point of view here in the UK I'm sure some of that is just "the grass looking greener".
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Immigration is easy for EU residents - AFAIK no problem as long as you have a job to go to..
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Most EU countries already have mandatory ID cards and just as much, or more, government interference and corruption.
I suppose there's always Somalia.
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My initial response was that running to another EU country won't help, because this data collection is mandated by an EU directive. Then it occurred to me that Greece probably won't implement it for another 10 years.
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As a UK citizen, I am currently considering moving to one of several insane countries!
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As a UK citizen, I am currently considering moving to one of several insane countries!
sane:
1: proceeding from a sound mind : rational
Having your country decide what's rational or not is the totalitarian way. I guess an insane country would be a country that is irrational to boot, but that wouldn't make it better. The best countries are indifferent, they don't have an opinion at all. In the US declaration of independence it said one of your inalienable rights is "pursuit of happiness" that never really made it into the constitution, because what does it really mean? To me it's a default, a "0
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I must take issue with your suggestion that repressive, badly-thought out and intrusive laws are promoted under the excuse of combatting terrorists.
It's terrorists and paedophiles, didn't you get the memo?
Re:Whats new? (Score:4, Informative)
Previously this data wasn't collected in a central location and was only gathered from providers as required by criminal investigations etc, but the goal here would be that the government should have every bit of communications data directly at hand at all times, even if it's not suspect in any fashion.
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Is that why my military-grade computer has only 3583 bytes free when it starts up?
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