UK Big Brother plan ‘kicked into the long grass’
p2pnet news view P2P | Politics:- It would have tracked: 7.7 billion text messages sent a month (July 09); 2.7 billion personal emails sent a month (Sept 2009 – web accounts only: Gmail, Hotmail, etc. No figures available for work addresses); 111 billion minutes of calls made from UK mobile phones in 2008; 143 billion minutes of calls made from UK landlines in 2008.
Who would have done the tracking?
Britain’s Home Office
However, ‘would have’ is the operative phrase because the UK government now says its “Big Brother” scheme has been delayed until after the election “amid protests that it would be intrusive and open to abuse,” says The Independent.
“A Whitehall source told The Independent last night that the project, estimated to cost up to £2bn over 10 years, was ‘in the very long grass’,” says the story, continuing »»»
Civil rights campaigners welcomed the move but warned that ministers were already responsible for introducing a range of databases and surveillance measures that breached basic liberties.
The data retention proposals have been championed by the intelligence agencies and police as a vital tool for tracking terror plots and international crime syndicates. Under the plans, communications companies would keep a record of phone numbers rung, addresses to which emails are sent, details of internet sites visited and the use of social networking sites such as Facebook – and would be required to surrender details to police when asked. They would not hold records of phone conversations or the contents of emails.
The planned Communications Data Bill, which would have created a giant database of this information, was dropped from last year’s Queen’s Speech in the face of public hostility.
Predictably, “If the Government does not maintain the capability or capacity for the police to determine … who has communicated with whom and when, the police service will face a fundamental breakdown in our ability to function in the communications age,” said the Association of Chief Police Officers.
“Earlier this year the Government clashed with the European Court of Human Rights over its determination to allow the police to keep DNA records of innocent people,” the story adds.
andThe Independent – Ministers cancel ‘Big Brother’ database, November 10at, 2009
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