UK planning to monitor and record every phone call, web page, and email sent by citizens

We're not sure if these plans will ever make it to reality, but the Telegraph is reporting that Britain's Home Office is working on database designed to store the details of every phone call, email, and web page accessed by British citizens in the previous year. The idea is to have various telecom providers hand over their records, which will all go into the database and then be accessible by police upon receipt of a court order. Of course, there's no reason why police couldn't simply ask the ISPs for the appropriate data when they get that court order, since records are already required to be kept for a year, but sometimes it's important for a government to build a massive scary database of personal information with endless potential for abuse by embittered low-level bureaucrats, you know? The plan is still in draft stages, so hopefully it dies on the table -- and if not, well, the NSA welcomes you with open arms, British expats.

[Via National Terror Alert]

[Haikibutsu @ May 21st 2008 12:22AM]

"Son, The police are here. You've been grounded. The police have records of you looking at porn"

[Vanillacide @ May 21st 2008 4:43AM]

Twenty-four years late and over-budget 1984 finally arrives in the UK, much like other British government technology initiatives.

Every day I wake up and think "surely our socialist overlords cannot introduce/propose anything even more authoritarian" and every day I am disappointed.

This is just another example of how these bureaucratic idiots think. How criminals think is proven by the Liverpool Mafia (who run most of the cocaine trafficing in Europe), they do not communicate electronically at all but instead take budget airline flights and talk face-to-face; other criminal gangs use disposable mobile phone (pay-as-you-go) or VoIP. Are terrorists not as smart?

Not only are the Labour party the most authoritarian government the UK has ever had, but they are also high tax (currently 42.5% of GDP which is highest ever in the country's history and nearly highest in Europe), high borrowing (was at the credit limit when times were good, what are they going to do now), highest number of people working for the state ever (more than 60% in some areas), providers of average state employee wages higher than average private industry wages, shower of never-had-a-real-job career politicians who need to be utterly destroyed in the next election and never voted in again.

[nDee @ May 21st 2008 7:48AM]

I thought America has these running for years, so ?

[OneLove @ May 21st 2008 11:45AM]

America just doesn't tell you.

[iEye @ May 21st 2008 12:24AM]

Good, there is too much freedom in theses countries... if you are not doing anything wrong you have nothing to worry about... Need to flush out those F-in religious fanatics associated with terrorists.

[Adam @ May 21st 2008 12:46AM]

You're either inebriated, a high school drop out or a dumb kid in 5th grade. There is no way a person with an IQ above 70 could actually think that vast amounts of electronic information can save your ass from being the victim of an event that statistically has a lower likelihood of happening than a lightning strike (i.e. terrorism).

If someone wanted to plan an attack, they could simply meet in a public park or a library and keep off the phone and e-mail. What will you do then, genius? Don't answer that. It's a rhetorical question. That means I either know the answer or I simply don't care what you think.

[Dxw @ May 21st 2008 12:51AM]

Too much freedom. Wow.

[Dan @ May 22nd 2008 2:52AM]

I am sure you would love to be recorded day and night and not be trusted. Why should we be controlled by government. Brits need to stand up!

[roflercopterer @ May 21st 2008 1:21AM]

I think he's joking

I hope

[ian Herrick @ May 21st 2008 2:33AM]

Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. --Benjamin Franklin

[ishism @ May 21st 2008 4:04AM]

More like we need to look for people trying to organize against the powerful fascist and stop them in their tracks.

[netwerk @ May 21st 2008 10:00AM]

It's ignorant asses like you that are sending this great country to hell

[netwerk @ May 21st 2008 10:06AM]

And please don't talk about "theses countries" and what amount of freedom they should be allowed if you yourself wouldn't want someone approaching you at your little lodge forcing you to hand over the rifle you have hanging over your fireplace surrounded by the heads of various animals you've hunted in the name of sport.

[gt2378b @ Jun 25th 2008 1:05PM]

Trolled again ladies; oh LOL!

[iEye @ May 21st 2008 12:26AM]

What the Us needs is a camera on every car, so all car accidents can be sorted out and insurance companies can start to deny drivers insurance based on incompetence....

[Juaquin @ May 21st 2008 3:27AM]

I don't know why this comment is high-ranked - charging insurance based on a camera in your car recording your fitness for driving is eerily similar to the proposal of healthcare companies to inspect your DNA for genetic defects (or predisposition to disease) and using these results to change the rate of your insurance (I believe this was shot down recently, thank goodness).

[nh @ May 21st 2008 4:17AM]

That's a superb idea, people forget it's a privilege not a right.

[Caleb @ May 21st 2008 8:45PM]

Ah... that's why hand guns are popular in L.A. ;-)

[Greg @ May 22nd 2008 12:36PM]

We should put cameras on peoples heads too so we can see how they eat. Then we could charge health insurance based on how they eat.

[Rocko @ May 21st 2008 12:28AM]

can't wait for future versions of 'United Kingdom's Funniest CCTV Videos'.

[r3loaded @ May 21st 2008 1:10AM]

We already have that...

[Blaktornado @ May 21st 2008 8:26PM]

There are enough shows like that already :P

Funny thing is, a lot of the clips are from American stores or cop-car cameras >.>

[Ignatius @ May 21st 2008 12:35AM]

Now all we need is a CCTV in every room of our house (including the bathrooms) and it should be complete. Oh and ankle-bracelets that report back to satellites to track your every movement.

Just wait, UK, the future of your privacy is SCREWED.

[LondonConsultant @ May 21st 2008 5:26AM]

Most of our movements are already tracked. Mobile phone companies keep historical databases of where every UK mobile phone was located; I understand this is typically to a resolution of under 20 metres and every 2 minutes. And police routinely access that information.

[Wildness @ May 21st 2008 12:41AM]

What makes anyone think that Bush and Cheney and the NSA aren't already doing this?

Maybe AT&T knows the answer to that.

[iEye @ May 21st 2008 12:43AM]

Good, take care of Osama and friends... USA number 1

[the_fozz @ May 21st 2008 12:41AM]

Maybe what the NRA says is true, ban guns and freedom is close behind.

[Nick @ May 21st 2008 1:49AM]

That doesn't even make sense - what does this have to do with the banning of guns?

[Dolemite @ May 21st 2008 1:49AM]

Ya, the funny thing is they did not just ban guns, knives, etc, but they also effectively have banned self-defence. If someone break into your house and you try to resist him, guess who will be going to jail? And no, it is not going to be the guy who broke into your house. But the limeys have no one to blame but themselves for handing over their guns.

In any case, this is just another reason to nuke the fooking limeys, as this idea is so stupid that no-doubt some politicians in Australia, Canada, California, and New York already think it is a great idea for "the greater good" of society.

Someone just turn Whitehall into a big crater, please! Humanity will thank you.

[LondonConsultant @ May 21st 2008 5:31AM]

@Dolemite: I bet you hate fish and chips too...

[fanman @ May 21st 2008 7:10AM]

What does banning guns have to do with the UK?

It's great that I can tell, even without ever havening met him or knowing anything about him other than his post, that Dolemite is american.

[Seminole @ May 21st 2008 12:20PM]

To Nike and fanman, Guns and any weapon are banned in the UK.

[SHoe @ May 21st 2008 12:42AM]

Not to sound conspiratorial or anything - but Echelon is now widely accepted as factual:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ECHELON

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) did a really interesting documentary about this a few years back. They showed how the 5 member countries circumvent their own privacy protection laws by getting their allies to spy on the their populations for them - the beauty of the Echelon network.

[SHoe @ May 21st 2008 12:59AM]

What is also quite interesting is the EU report suggesting the U.S. uses Echelon for industrial sabotage purposes. That is the conclusion of the report (see the wikipedia article above). Makes sense: the new global economy is as much of a battle as the old cold war. The country that controls the global economy owns the future - and protects their own sovereignty by extension (a very paranoid, preemptive extension). The U.S. slipping behind other powers is more of threat to the U.S. standing in the world than any Soviet tank / submarine / ICBM deployment. After all, how long can you be number 2, 3, or 4 economically and still maintain the #1 military? Eventually the numbers catch up and the other guys buys a better military.

I know that sounds incredibly paranoid - but did you ever read that 'Project for a New American Century' literature produced by Rumsfeld, Cheney, Wolfowitz, and crowd? (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_for_the_New_American_Century) Funny thing is that from a purely chess-like perspective, I would consider doing the doing the same thing. What - you'd rely on the American public's work ethic to pull it ahead of the pack? pffft!

[Dave A @ May 21st 2008 12:45AM]

Given the UK government's sparkling track record in developing IT systems there only UK citizens should worry more about losing money in tax rather than their privacy.

[Andy TGD @ May 21st 2008 7:47AM]

Dude, given the British government's abysmal reputation for looking after the data that we give them willingly, I'm worried. I think we'll all be lucky if some low-grade civil servant doesn't accidentally post copies of this database in the post (unencrypted, obviously - too much for a civil servant to understand) and promptly lose them all to organised crime. Damn, I hate this country so much right now.

[Dave A @ May 21st 2008 10:19AM]

@Andy TGD: that's a good point: they will take years to get it live and minutes to lose the data.

[TheCow5 @ May 21st 2008 12:50AM]

I will be the only one here but when I read this book I must say I didn’t see why ppl held this book so high.
I felt it was more a flight of fantasy than having any possible chance of becoming reality; it was just way too far fetch for me to believe it to be true. Kind of like journey to the center of the earth, nice story but not believable.

Having said that, I would think China would be closer to 1984 that any other countries.

[Montag @ May 21st 2008 12:58AM]

Not believable?

You DO realize that your writing on a piece of plastic that has more power than EVERY scientist that lived for 10,000 years BEFORE you were born and you can easily have brain surgery performed on you by a surgeon 6,000 miles away while you're sitting in a battlefield hospital where the combat droid dragged you after being struck point blank in the chest by a force vectoring bullet that caused a skull fracture after being defelected by the DragonSkin armour into the wall next to you, sending a brick towards the kevlar helmet that kept the nail in that brick from penetrating your skull at a force greater than that of a mack truck.

But yeah...that stuff could NEVER happen.

But moving on.....

For every blockage of our freedom, there must be those who find ways around it. For every measure, there must be a countermeasure. This is why I hold my laptop and my 995 9mm Carbine as two of my valued possessions. Both will ensure my liberty when the time comes at the right time.

[TheCow5 @ May 21st 2008 1:31AM]

Montag: I think your talking about to separate things.
If you want to discuss what will exist in the future, you must speak of what you think will be possible or probable in the future (as far as technology goes). We can have a good go with that alone.
But now when we look at the book 1984, I don’t see it giving any incite of truly believable technology that we currently have or can see actually coming true. Ok that TV screen in every room which the book never tries to explain how in hell this is possible, but it simply states that on the other side of every one of these screen is a member of the party looking at everything you do every time at all time. That’s fantasy.
The purging of memory from ones mind is nice and I will concede that may be possible one day.

For the most part the book was speaking not of technology but more of government control and not allowing that type of control to become reality, and even at that it did not give any incite of how it came to be but simply that the government said it was at war with one country then another time said it was not at war with that country but now an ally of that country and now at ware with another country it once said it was allied with. (Ok a bit of that does may you think of George W. Bush Presidency and his war in Iraq)

[Dave @ May 21st 2008 1:48AM]

"It was not desirable that the proles should have strong political feelings. All that was required of them was a primitive patriotism which could be appealed to whenever it was necessary to make them accept longer working-hours or shorter rations. And even when they became discontented, as they sometimes did, their discontent led nowhere, because being without general ideas, they could only focus it on petty specific grievances. The larger evils invariably escaped their notice."

[Dave A @ May 21st 2008 11:08AM]

It's a warning not a prediction. What could happen if there is no channel for opinion and no words to express dissent.

[MeatyPi @ May 21st 2008 12:48AM]

The thought police will soon know what you're thinking.

[iEye @ May 21st 2008 12:54AM]

There should be a system where you cannot purchase anything without your biometric ID, all taxes are automatically calculated when you spend any money... You cannot buy food without your ID, get rid of terrorists and criminals... This would be a better use of a monitor system...

[ishism @ May 21st 2008 4:13AM]

more like geneticist is back on the table. iEyes sounds like a poor sap, who thinks killing people is a good thing. Hitler lite

[Vanillacide @ May 21st 2008 4:20AM]

That's exactly what the UK's current authoritarian socialist government plan to implement in the country with their ID card and "national identity database" initiative -- every interaction with the state or payment system will require a biometric ID card and records of the interaction will be stored on the central database.

Once these nanny-state fascists know what you eat, what you buy, where you go they'll be able to force you to do things "for your own good" e.g. too many pizza & burgers in your shopping or eating out equals no health care for you!

[Bob @ May 21st 2008 12:56AM]

Did I hear someone say, too much freedom? Personally, it won't effect me since I've got nothing to hide. But it is a breech of privacy. What are they so afraid of anyways?

[saunajunkie @ May 21st 2008 2:39PM]

Having nothing to hide is as relative as morals and laws to which that notion is based. They can be changed for better or for worse, and they affect your quality of life. If the government can monitor you, they can have you arrested for what you say, or blackmail you to keep quiet by using information that is legal, yet harmful to your reputation. If you assume that the people who are monitoring these are going to have a system of morals that will look out for your best interest, then you should refer to both historical events such as the Stasi's activity in East Germany and studies such as the Milgram Experiment. All surveillance is not bad, and certain types may have positive affect when used with a warrant, but consider the future negative outcomes of such a move which is so threatening to the freedom of speech.

[PABLO @ May 21st 2008 1:00AM]

r u kidding me? its ridiculous that in a technology blog belive this crap, first of all, you will need to hire 1000s of people to monitor all that info, and second you cant do it in real time, and you cant find in the market that storage capacity to record every call or mail or communication in england.
GET REAL!

[Matt @ May 21st 2008 1:11AM]

Um...yes you can? The summary states that records are already required to be kept for a year. Also, data mining.