UK Warriors - Big Brother Is Getting Bigger

[Martin Luxton]

In order to protect us from terrorists the government now has know about every email we send and the future doesn't look any better

Reports have suggested the government has even bigger plans for data retention.
They could involve one central database, gathering details on every text sent, e-mail sent, phone call made and website visited.

UK e-mail Law An "Attack On Rights"

This is based on a European Union Directive so I suppose it will affect European Warriors as well.

Martin

[RebeccaL]

I'm pretty sure that governments have long had access to all emails and everything that we do online

[Martin Luxton]

Originally Posted by longroad

I'm pretty sure that governments have long had access to all emails and everything that we do online

Probably. They just want to make it legal in case they get caught with their pants down.

Martin

[Ian Jackson]

This was obvious 11 years ago a soon as the Labour voters won their way. We're now paying the price - on all fronts. I fear our fascist-style government more than any terrorist.

[JamesFrancisIM]

Oh my god.

Do we need to put our hand up to go to the toilet too? =/

- James.

[seamusb]

It gets worse...

ECHELON - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Jon Alexander]

Scary stuff indeed.

Populations need controlling, of course, Can't have those pesky 'individuals' demonstrating 'free speech' or any nonsense like that....

>sigh<

[sarahstaar]

For many years all email traffic in the uk and us has been scanned for "red flag keywords" like gun, bomb etc.

[Thomas]

Originally Posted by Martin Luxton

This is based on a European Union Directive so I suppose it will affect European Warriors as well.

It is and it does but, to be honest, intelligence services in most countries have been doing "it" for so long anyway, it hardly seems necessary to introduce any more legislation on it...

I know electronic surveillance of the public has been ongoing here (in Ireland) for nearly 40 years (and likely longer). As with all such measures, it was introduced to combat (an admittedly very real) threat to the State but the practice has remained, even though the threat has diminished.

However, the extend of monitoring was only publically admitted last year when it was disclosed that details as precise as the times you open and close an Internet connection from your computer are being recorded.

But it's not all Big Brother vs Joe Public, and not all about Internet usage: The Gardaí (the police) accidently let it slip during a murder trial in 2006 that, rather than only being accurate to several hundreds of metres, their ability to track the location of a mobile phone led them to within just a few metres of the victims body, which was hidden in a overgrown ditch. The same technology was also used last year when a man was convicted of murdering his wife after the movement of his mobile phone placed him at the murder scene at the time she was killed.

Tommy.

[naonline]

Originally Posted by Ian Jackson

This was obvious 11 years ago a soon as the Labour voters won their way. We're now paying the price - on all fronts. I fear our fascist-style government more than any terrorist.

mmm, the Tories would never do this, would they Ian?

[Greg124]

I am also concerned about the privacy implications. The UK is turning into a police state. If the proposed data regulations record which websites one visits and this info is held on a central government database, this has tremendous implications, remember the RIP law (Regulation of Investigatory Powers), which were suppose to deal with terrorism & organised crime allowing the law to check on people who were suspected of serious crime...

take a look at
FIPR Regulation of Investigatory Powers Information Centre

These laws have been exploited & corrupted so that they are utilised for trivial purposed... people have been investigated under the RIP laws by local authorities for things such as whether parents who wish to enrole their kids into a particular school are really living at the address they claim, or to check on people who have put the wrong items into their garbage bin or recycling bin etc etc

If this data ( website & email usage) is held on a central data base, I can see a time when , despite government claims that this won't happen, that local authorities, and any Tom, Dick or Harry will have access to this database for any reason they choose.

Is there any solution as fas as us the internet user is concerned?

I have heard about anonymous web usage & email, I don't know a great deal about these.

There are proxy servers such as Proxy Pimp, but as far as I am concerned these prevent the webmaster at the site being visited form knowing anything about the visitor, and this would not prevent ISP's for recording the details.

Does anyone know whether "true" private web browsing & website visitation is possible, such that even ones ISP is unable to determine which site has been visited & hence the ISP would be unable to pass this info onto the proposed government database?, and also what about the problem of private email transmission?

Any advice on this matter would be appreciated by myself & many other warriors. Remember sooner or later most countries will attempt to use such a system, to a greater or lesser extent!

As far as I am concerned it's more a question of principal. However do any of us want a situation where any petty pencil pushing bureaucrat to be able to check on decent hard-working people in this way for possibly the most trivial of reasons.

This is a issue of concern for all of us, potentially over most of the world. Who knows where this will end. Imagine applying for a job & having ones prospective employer being able to check on which website one has visited over the last 12 months. Of course the government would insist that this would never be permitted to happed, but can we be sure of this especially if the job was working for the government or a local authority.

So if anyone has knowledge of anonymous website visiting methods or services, please share.

Greg.

[HeySal]

Actually - they are now, or at least getting ready to, put black boxes in computers such as aircraft has. Indestructable and records EVERYTHING.
Want to bring down Echelon? Find millions to email trigger words at the same time - same with Echelon telephone systems - get everyone on their telephones saying trigger words at precisely the same time and if you get enough of them you can melt them down - for awhile. I am thinking that before any actual civil war or attack anywhere that factions might conduct that defense. It's not infallable.
You just have to have to know that you are being watched all the time online - never alone in an email. Call this light stuff because in the US there are several bills being pushed through that will take our freedom of speech so it won't be long before we can't even talk about our lack of privacy. Nothing to see here folks, move along.

Now my question (lets keep it a legal topic) -- if they are so good at all this damned tracking, why the hell is my email address being phished? Why the hell am I getting spam? IF they have to have their noses up my ass, I would really appreciate them dishing out the toilet paper, too. Bitches.