Trackback This Post | Subscribe to the comments through RSS Feed
UK: Government will spy on every call and e-mail
Ministers are considering spending up to £12 billion on a database to monitor and store the internet browsing habits, e-mail and telephone records of everyone in Britain.
GCHQ, the government’s eavesdropping centre, has already been given up to £1 billion to finance the first stage of the project.
Hundreds of clandestine probes will be installed to monitor customers live on two of the country’s biggest internet and mobile phone providers - thought to be BT and Vodafone. BT has nearly 5m internet customers.
Ministers are braced for a backlash similar to the one caused by their ID cards programme. Dominic Grieve, the shadow home secretary, said: “Any suggestion of the government using existing powers to intercept communications data without public discussion is going to sound extremely sinister.”
MI5 currently conducts limited e-mail and website intercepts which are approved under specific warrants by the home secretary.
Further details of the new plan will be unveiled next month in the Queen’s speech.
The Home Office stressed no formal decision had been taken but sources said officials had made clear that ministers had agreed “in principle” to the programme.
Officials claim live monitoring is necessary to fight terrorism and crime. However, critics question whether such a vast system can be kept secure. A total of 57 billion text messages were sent in the UK last year - 1,800 every second.
– BY David Leppard
Popularity: 1% [?]
Click Here To Subscribe To MediaChannel's Newsletters and Alerts.
3 Responses to “UK: Government will spy on every call and e-mail”
Posted on 07 Oct 2008 at 5:31 pm by MsRotten
What the hell is wrong with the citizens of the UK?!?! I keep waiting for them to “snap” and start a Revolution to take back their Country. They have millions of surveillance cameras on their streets and subways, heavy restictions on “free speech”, and now this! Are they THAT brainwashed already that they don’t see that they are merely rats in a cage? I’d have to say the same thing about Americans. Slowly, but systematically, our basic human rights, along with our Constitutional Rights, are being taken away….and no one seems to notice or care. Truely PATHETIC! NO! To the New World Order!
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Posted on 08 Oct 2008 at 11:35 am by davy
Just heard on BBC radio this morning they will be talking to kids as young as 5 about terrorism to prepare them. Keep that FEAR flowing. WHEW!!
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Posted on 25 Oct 2008 at 10:33 am by UK Voter
The news that the government now wants to track our mobile phone calls, texts, emails and internet browsing habits has got me enraged. For the past 11 years, this government has sought more and more control over its citizens, from installing 4.2m CCTV cameras, to the suggestion that we must respond to more and more intrusive questions when they complete the next census. It has simply got to stop.
On this occasion, I have done something about it, in my own small way. I have written an article outlining what the government is seeking to do and my views. But, I have also produced a ‘draft’ letter that can be personalised and sent to local MP’s. I am urging other likeminded people to reproduce the article, to include their own comments, after all, not everyone will agree with all my comments and then publicise it. Maybe we can start a programme where people start to bombard their MP’s with a demand that they do not support the latest data communication bill. The link is here if anyone would care to take a look.
http://www.power-to-the-people.co.uk/2008/10/public-call-time-big-brother-britain/
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Leave a Reply
- Latest News
- Popular
Plunder: Investigating Our Economic Calamity
By Danny Schechter
As millions of homes are foreclosed upon, as unemployment grows and inflation mounts, it is time to understand the origins of the crisis and the need to fight for economic justice.
Shock Jocks:
Hate Speech and
Talk Radio
Written by veteran media critic and Emmy winner Rory O'Connor, Shock Jocks features unsparing profiles of the ten worst conservative radio talkers in America, including Michael Savage, Bill O' Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, Don Imus and the rest.