UK plans to monitor all internet use.

[ToxicAdam]

Communications firms are being asked to record all internet contacts between people as part of a modernisation in UK police surveillance tactics.
The home secretary scrapped plans for a database but wants details to be held and organised for security services.

The new system would track all e-mails, phone calls and internet use, including visits to social network sites.

The Tories said the Home Office had "buckled under Conservative pressure" in deciding against a giant database.
Announcing a consultation on a new strategy for communications data and its use in law enforcement, Jacqui Smith said there would be no single government-run database.
   
Communications data is an essential tool for law enforcement agencies to track murderers and paedophiles, save lives and tackle crime 

But she also said that "doing nothing" in the face of a communications revolution was not an option.

The Home Office will instead ask communications companies - from internet service providers to mobile phone networks - to extend the range of information they currently hold on their subscribers and organise it so that it can be better used by the police, MI5 and other public bodies investigating crime and terrorism.

Ministers say they estimate the project will cost £2bn to set up, which includes some compensation to the communications industry for the work it may be asked to do.

"Communications data is an essential tool for law enforcement agencies to track murderers, paedophiles, save lives and tackle crime," Ms Smith said.
"Advances in communications mean that there are ever more sophisticated ways to communicate and we need to ensure that we keep up with the technology being used by those who seek to do us harm.
"It is essential that the police and other crime fighting agencies have the tools they need to do their job, However to be clear, there are absolutely no plans for a single central store."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/8020039.stm


I know, who's to say the US or Australia doesn't already have something like this in place already ... but it's kind of alarming at the speed and openness in which the UK is spying on their own people.

 

[Eric P]

why not do what we do?

spoiler (click to show/hide)

the same thing, but not announce it

[close]

[Don Flamenco]

I am fashionably angry at this development, even though I will do nothing about it and that it will probably not mean anything in the future.

[T-Short]

huh. this is the Data Retention Directive. it's an EU parliament directive, so it's being "considered" by all the EU member states, not just the UK.

[pilonv1]

i thought they decided this was too drastic of a measure?

[Phoenix Dark]

I'd imagine the US does this without telling everyone. And if people found out I guess they'd be bitching about privacy or whatever

[T-Short]

Fuck this Big Brother bullshit. What happens if I call the Queen a cunt? Is my house going to be carpet bombed and my family hanged?

The wording of the EU directive stipulates that the contents of the communication is not to be saved. What is being saved is the ID of the two nodes, geolocation where applicable, and timestamps. So call the Queen a cunt all you like, that's probably getting handled by another directive.

[FlameOfCallandor]

This will never be abused. Ever.

[Ganhyun]

This will never be abused. Ever.

seriously. Like, never.