UK Government To Demand Data On Every Call, Email, and Tweet 199
judgecorp writes "The UK government is proposing a law that would require phone and Internet companies to store information on all communications, and hand it to the security services when required. The Communications Capabilities Development Programme (CCDP) abandoned by the last government is back on the table, proposed as a means to increase security, and likely to be pushed through before the Olympics in London, according to reports."
Thank you (Score:5, Insightful)
Thank you Tory Government for proving you're just as big a bunch of cunts as the others.
That'll be the scheme opposed by the CURRENT lot? (Score:5, Insightful)
When they were in opposition?
I guess whether it looks like a good idea or not largely depends on whether you're the one choosing the "preferred bidders". And thinking about your post-political career.
Oh noes! (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Thank you (Score:5, Insightful)
I wish all the old WWII guys would get in their wheel chairs, walkers, and slippers and hobble down to Parliament and scream:
Bloody hell! What the fuck! It looks like we wasted our time and our buddies' lives fighting the Germans!
And then flog all the PMs with their canes.
The UK is dead. (Score:1, Insightful)
What remains is a pathetic pretender which occupies the same position on the globe,
but which deserves no respect from its citizens or anyone else in the world.
This IS where the USA is heading, in case anyone was wondering. And before
you jump to conclusions with some xenophobic diatribe, allow me to
mention that I am American.
For the sake of the Olympics... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:That'll be the scheme opposed by the CURRENT lo (Score:5, Insightful)
That's a side effect of two-party/adversarial politics. The party in power only opposes stuff because they see it as their job to. If the current government proposed a law outlawing the mistreatment of kittens Labour would probably find an angle to argue against it. It's because party politics isn't about serving the people any more (if it ever was), it's about beating the other party at the next election, and that means scoring points wherever possible.
The only thing more depressing than a situation where one side opposes the exact same thing they supported when on the other side of the chamber, is when both sides agree on something, and it gets rushed through without any of the issues being examined.
UK is no different than the rest of the world (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Inevitable (Score:5, Insightful)
Are you serious or just trolling?
The reason for this is simple. If your child is kidnapped by an insane pedophile, you want the Law Enforcement Officers (LEOs) to use everything they can to find that guy.
Sure, within the limits of the law and, in the US at least, the Constitution.
If a record of tweets, blogs, phone calls and IMs helps them do that, it could save your child.
So could putting cameras in all our houses. Where do we draw the line? I'd rather not live in a police state for the few times it may be convenient.
Privacy is a great idea, but there are a lot of bad guys out there and we want to keep tabs on them. I think a better solution is to find a government we can trust.
Good luck with that.
Re:welcome to the NWO (Score:5, Insightful)
Dude I think the right-wing with their obsession with big-business, concentrating wealth in the hands of a few and assuming people are worthless unless they have money has kind of helped. As for this libertarian bollocks about people fending for themselves, well I wonder how many of you lot work for the government in some manner or other (military, security, university researchers, politics, military contractors - jeez even computer companies probably sell half of their shit to the public sector). Remember throughout the entire of human history since the discovery of agriculture there existed a parasitic ruling class that sucked up the surplus production from the masses in order to build its castles/temples & live a life of luxury. This goes on for thousands of years in different forms - nobility, emperors, bankers.... and when someone suggests a century or so ago 'Hey, lets take some of this wealth and give it back to the people' the supposed freedom-loving right-wing scream "SOCIALISM!!!"
As for this law, well thats being pushed by a Tory government. The last Labour government were also quite right-wing & like most of your US politicians in the pockets of big business. So if you're remotely bothered about this then perhaps you'll start fighting against the global corps who control your life instead of sounding like an Alex Jones wannabe. You lot are going to keep screaming about socialism until every last fucking right you have has been taken by the rich at which point it'll be too late to do anything at all...
Re:welcome to the NWO (Score:4, Insightful)
Name-calling aside, I think Parent has a point. I'm pretty sure it's the responsibility of the people to keep government power limited and we definitely have been slacking off lately in favour of all the wonderful handouts. We ask that it runs everything then we complain that it does so for its own sake rather than ours. We kid ourselves if we think government any less selfish than those evil corporations. We're too lazy to vote with our dollar against the latter and too lazy to change the former and keep it in check. Bottom line is that we get what we deserve.
I see this as a natural reaction: The Internet has caused a little surge of activism lately and we can very well see how that has the government running scared.
Re:Inevitable (Score:5, Insightful)
I think a better solution is to find a government we can trust.
The only answer to that is: A government that doesn't have such powers. Sorry but you can't have your cake and eat it... You either accept that your rights are in someone else's hands to be abused, or yours to defend. The middle ground situation you're looking for is never stable enough to last more than a generation, if that.
decentralized communication needed (Score:3, Insightful)
Governments will never stop seeking more and more power over individuals. Corporations will always serve the will of their plutocrat masters.
Anonymity is the ONLY effective defense against power, that is why powerful interests do everything they can to eliminate it.
"The People" who aren't in either of those camps need a means of anonymous, distributed, communication that is outside of anyone's control.
Imagine a box anyone with a little electrical knowledge can wire into a hot outlet. Or a solar powered "wifi grenade" that can be thrown on a roof to make a node in the mesh and last until someone finds it. Set these up to connect to existing hotspots to piggyback on the "plutocrat" internet. Configure them to be low noise enough that they are difficult to distinguish from regular traffic. Add a little onboard storage and files can be "cloud stored" and impossible to remove.
We are coming to a crossroads. The future will be either the one of the boot stomping on the face like 1984, or one where the evil men who seek power are constantly frustrated by freedom loving individuals who have a greater understanding of technology.
Re:For the sake of the Olympics... (Score:5, Insightful)
The threat of terrorism is a lame excuse for mass surveillance.
Copyright protection is a lame excuse for mass surveillance.
Child porn is a lame excuse for mass surveillance.
The Olympics!? They're not even trying any more.
time to start encrypting everything (Score:5, Insightful)
encrypt your phone calls, email, everything
Re:Thank you (Score:5, Insightful)
10-Step Plan to Cure Cancer in UK and US
1. Nationalize our communication systems. Telephony, cable TV, and data transmission need to become the people's. If we stopped sending a great deal of our money into the coffers of a few corporations that have so much cash that they continue to expand their control, we would have more money for other things like education. If France can offer the big three communication needs (phone, internet, and television) for a fee roughly 1/3 of what we are paying, we should follow their example.
2. Immediately institute regulations on the amount of interest that can be charged on credit accounts. Make it the prime rate plus 10-20% - enough to make them money but not so much as to continue to fleece the population.
3. Regulate severely or nationalize the use of debit cards and force businesses to discount for cash commensurate with the fees that they are paying for using these electronic transfers.
4. Separate the banks from speculation and traditional banking. By allowing our banks to become addicted to gambling they are no longer serving the public's interest but theirs.
5. Immediately institute a transaction tax of less than 1% on each transaction. The only effect that people would ever see is when they sell a stock and have to pay this fee out of their proceeds. What this would do is stop the manipulation that major players in the market can perform to bleed money out of the system.
6. Immediately cease the speculative trading of commodities. As I have often stated if you want to buy oil or grains then you must have the facilities to actually accept delivery of such commodities. If you cannot then you have no business in this market.
7. Immediately treat all income the same whether from salaries or capital gains: treat everyone the same as far as the taxes in our society are concern. Let them contribute to the social security and medicare systems as well pay their fair share of the burdens we all should share for living in a modern society.
8. Break up the media conglomerates. There is no reason that all of our news should be filtered through corporations like Disney or Rupert Murdoch's Media Empire.
9. Treat our trading partners in exactly the way we are treated. Japan can export as many automobiles as we can sell in Japan. China the same. As is stands now all this type of trade is doing is stealing bread off our tables.
10 Stop the damned revolving door that spins riches to those who worked in government service regulating the same industries that enrich them. Forbid anyone working in a senior position in government from working for a private firm in the same area for a period of time no less than five years and have this same restriction apply to family members.
http://sideshow.me.uk/sfeb12.htm#1202200100 [sideshow.me.uk]
Re:Thank you (Score:5, Insightful)
> Power is something government should have very little of.
Power is something both goverment _and_ private conglomerates should have very little off. If you have a too weak goverment, private special interests can grab too much power and become de facto goverments piggybacking on weak official goverments, so you get the same negative results for the population. The key is to cut power everywhere before it starts reaching critical, self-sustaining thresholds. And this only works if the people are powerful enough to cut both the goverment and special interests. It works only with a more direct democracy.