The Government have announced plans to monitor all text messages, emails, Skype phone calls and every website visited by every person in the UK at a cost of £2 billion over ten years. The records will be kept for two years by Internet Providers with the storage facilities paid for by the Government. I seem to remember that when a similar plan was proposed by the Labour Government it was strongly opposed by both the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats. The word hypocrites come to mind!
The Daily Mail points out: Britain is already one of the most spied-upon nations – with three million operations carried out under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act – ostensibly an anti-terror law – over the last decade. Read more: here
We are assured that it will only be the names and addresses of the sender and recipient that are known; to access what has been written or to listen to what has been said will require Home Office sanction. Right! For how long? And why does anybody need to know that I shop at Amazon, occasionally look at EBay and the Daily Telegraph In my opinion it will not be very long before it becomes the right of Government to know what you are writing or saying and to whom. It will be a hackers playground and confidential information will, somehow or another, find its way into the media. I personally don’t trust any of the reassurances given today by either the Deputy Prime Minister or the Home Secretary.
If people value the right to privacy this measure must be strongly fought until it is defeated.
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