UK Government To Monitor All Internet Use 446
nk497 writes "The UK government has further detailed plans to track all communications — mobile phone calls, text messages, email and browser sessions — in the fight against terrorism, pedophiles and organized crime. The government said it's not looking to see what you're saying, just to whom and when and how. Contrary to previous plans to keep it all in a massive database, it will now let ISPs and telecoms firms store the data themselves, and access it when it feels it needs it." And to clarify this,
Barence writes "The UK Government has dropped plans to create a massive database of all internet communications, following stern criticism from privacy advocates. Instead the Government wants ISPs and mobile phone companies to retain details of mobile phone calls, emails and internet sites visited. As with the original scheme, the actual content of the phone calls and messages won't be recorded, just the dates, duration and location/IP address of messages sent. The security services would then have to apply to the ISP or telecoms company to have the data released. The new proposals would also require ISPs to retain details of communications that originated in other countries but passed over the UK's network, such as instant messages."
Encryption (Score:3, Informative)
Problem ( mostly ) solved.
Re:1984 (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Alternate solution (Score:5, Informative)
The devil is always in the details.
1) what do you do with the 1.6 million muslims [bbc.co.uk] (most of whom are peaceful & law-abiding) who are presently living in the UK (many of whom are not first-generation)? If you just throw them out, won't that make the previously peaceful ones very angry with you?
2) what do you do with the 53% of all residents of Northern Ireland [bbc.co.uk] who are protestant (and therefore want to stay where they are)? If you just evict them, doesn't that risk starting yet *another* war in that region?
Re:What stops the ISPs ignoring the government? (Score:5, Informative)
That EU regulation is now used as an 'excuse' by the same British government to tell the ISP's and Telco's to retain the data.
As usual the tabloids will blame Europe.
The EU regulation does only specify some minimum requirements like 6 months retention but the UK government will no doubt go for the maximum of 24 months, that was the minimum they wanted of Europe with unlimited as an option.
Re:Porn Database (Score:3, Informative)
And guess whose partner/husband may have a use for such a database.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/apr/07/jacqui-smith-mps-expenses [guardian.co.uk]
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article5999287.ece [timesonline.co.uk]
and swords.... (Score:3, Informative)
I'm pretty sure quite a lot of the British elite is still due to being good at killing other people and invading their land, as much as market forces.
David Cameron is a direct descendant of William IV for example and his family got to be kings by either invading England or being invited to rule by the nobility, depending on your reading of history. "Down with the kids and the people" Dave might come over as chummy and merely rich through his ancestors financial dealings and connections to the Rothschilds but that's just him playing up his urban street cred..
An awful lot of the upper class elite in the UK got to be upper class elite a long time back through land grants from the king or doing a bit of land grabbing, killing and invading sometime between the Saxons and now (still quite a few Norman names there today, eh?). Pretty sure that "new money" still means your great great grand dad made money through cotton or the Empire as far as a lot of the Eton set is concerned ;-)