UK government now has the right to watch over its citizens.

[cthulhu_waves]

How did something like this happen? This is just draconian and unjustifiable. Whatever happened to our rights in being a private citizen? Who I choose to communicate with, and what I read online, is none of 'the state's' business, whatsoever.

Orwell was right on the money.

The government will be able to monitor the calls, emails, texts and website visits of everyone in the UK under new legislation set to be announced soon.

Internet firms will be required to give intelligence agency GCHQ access to communications on demand, in real time.

The Home Office says the move is key to tackling crime and terrorism, but civil liberties groups have criticised it.

Tory MP David Davis called it "an unnecessary extension of the ability of the state to snoop on ordinary people".

Attempts by the last Labour government to take similar steps failed after huge opposition, including from the Tories.

Read more here.

[Flow]

Does anybody really think the Government really cares what the "Ordinary People" are doing? As a US citizen, I could care less if Uncle Sam wanted to monitor all of this - I welcome it. If your not doing anything majorly bad, you will be fine. Conspire some acts of terrorism or some other major bad shit, you are going to Federal-Pound-Me-In-The-Ass-Daily prison.

[DamianJ]

Does anybody really think the Government really cares what the "Ordinary People" are doing? As a US citizen, I could care less if Uncle Sam wanted to monitor all of this - I welcome it. If your not doing anything majorly bad, you will be fine.

It's really amazing that people still trot out the "if you've done nothing wrong, you've got nothing to hide" argument these days. The argument has been debunked so many times, there's even a scholarly paper debunking it. However, it's still quite popular, especially among law enforcement types. So it's nice to see that some are trying to focus in on disproving this troubling claim. Reporter Barton Gellman is apparently starting up a new blog (oddly, it's not at all clear where that blog is, or if it's just a sub-segment of an existing blog) to focus in on this issue. In the introductory post he summarizes the point nicely:

Everyone has something to hide. Privacy is relational. It depends on the audience. You don't want your employer to know you're job hunting. You don't spill all about your love life to your mom, or your kids. You don't tell trade secrets to your rivals. We don't expose ourselves indiscriminately, and we care enough about exposure to lie as a matter of course. Among upstanding citizens, researchers have consistently found that lying is "an everyday social interaction" (twice a day among college students, once a day in the Real World). Remember the disasters that befell Jim Carrey in that movie plot that left him magically unable to fib for even one day? Comprehensive transparency is a nightmare.

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/201...75610484.shtml

HTH explain why privacy is important.

[SuckOnThis]

Does anybody really think the Government really cares what the "Ordinary People" are doing? As a US citizen, I could care less if Uncle Sam wanted to monitor all of this - I welcome it. If your not doing anything majorly bad, you will be fine. Conspire some acts of terrorism or some other major bad shit, you are going to Federal-Pound-Me-In-The-Ass-Daily prison.

If you welcome that kind of shit move to China.

[AllAboutCams]

if you want to do dirty business use a throw away mobile thats not in your name

[cthulhu_waves]

[sperbonzo]

Don't worry, the US government will have all of your info also.... from everywhere on the planet....

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/201...tacenter/all/1

You should all read the entire article, but here is a TINY taste of it...

"Under construction by contractors with top-secret clearances, the blandly named Utah Data Center is being built for the National Security Agency. A project of immense secrecy, it is the final piece in a complex puzzle assembled over the past decade. Its purpose: to intercept, decipher, analyze, and store vast swaths of the world?s communications as they zap down from satellites and zip through the underground and undersea cables of international, foreign, and domestic networks. The heavily fortified $2 billion center should be up and running in September 2013. Flowing through its servers and routers and stored in near-bottomless databases will be all forms of communication, including the complete contents of private emails, cell phone calls, and Google searches, as well as all sorts of personal data trails?parking receipts, travel itineraries, bookstore purchases, and other digital ?pocket litter.? It is, in some measure, the realization of the ?total information awareness? program created during the first term of the Bush administration?an effort that was killed by Congress in 2003 after it caused an outcry over its potential for invading Americans? privacy.

But ?this is more than just a data center,? says one senior intelligence official who until recently was involved with the program. The mammoth Bluffdale center will have another important and far more secret role that until now has gone unrevealed. It is also critical, he says, for breaking codes. And code-breaking is crucial, because much of the data that the center will handle?financial information, stock transactions, business deals, foreign military and diplomatic secrets, legal documents, confidential personal communications?will be heavily encrypted. According to another top official also involved with the program, the NSA made an enormous breakthrough several years ago in its ability to cryptanalyze, or break, unfathomably complex encryption systems employed by not only governments around the world but also many average computer users in the US. The upshot, according to this official: ?Everybody?s a target; everybody with communication is a target.?



This should scare the crap out of everyone, not matter whether you've "done nothing wrong" or not.



.


.

[Rochard]

It's really amazing that people still trot out the "if you've done nothing wrong, you've got nothing to hide" argument these days. The argument has been debunked so many times, there's even a scholarly paper debunking it. However, it's still quite popular, especially among law enforcement types. So it's nice to see that some are trying to focus in on disproving this troubling claim. Reporter Barton Gellman is apparently starting up a new blog (oddly, it's not at all clear where that blog is, or if it's just a sub-segment of an existing blog) to focus in on this issue. In the introductory post he summarizes the point nicely:

Everyone has something to hide. Privacy is relational. It depends on the audience. You don't want your employer to know you're job hunting. You don't spill all about your love life to your mom, or your kids. You don't tell trade secrets to your rivals. We don't expose ourselves indiscriminately, and we care enough about exposure to lie as a matter of course. Among upstanding citizens, researchers have consistently found that lying is "an everyday social interaction" (twice a day among college students, once a day in the Real World). Remember the disasters that befell Jim Carrey in that movie plot that left him magically unable to fib for even one day? Comprehensive transparency is a nightmare.

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/201...75610484.shtml

HTH explain why privacy is important.

Everyone has something to hide? Like what? What I want my wife to pick u for Dinner on her way home or where my kid is spending the night?

I believe we have little to fear from our government. On the other hand, private businesses have tons of data on each and every one of us - that's scary.

[topnotch, standup guy]

Does anybody really think the Government really cares what the "Ordinary People" are doing? As a US citizen, I could care less if Uncle Sam wanted to monitor all of this - I welcome it. If your not doing anything majorly bad, you will be fine. Conspire some acts of terrorism or some other major bad shit, you are going to Federal-Pound-Me-In-The-Ass-Daily prison.

That would depend on who's heading "the Government" at any given time.

In the extremely unlikely event that someone like Rick Santorum or Sarah Palin gets into the White House, merely posting on a forum like this might land you in that ass pounding Federal facility of which you speak.
.

[u-Bob]

Does anybody really think the Government really cares what the "Ordinary People" are doing? As a US citizen, I could care less if Uncle Sam wanted to monitor all of this - I welcome it. If your not doing anything majorly bad, you will be fine. Conspire some acts of terrorism or some other major bad shit, you are going to Federal-Pound-Me-In-The-Ass-Daily prison.

PANOPTICON:
The Panopticon was proposed as a model prison by Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832), a Utilitarian philosopher and theorist of British legal reform.

The Panopticon ("all-seeing") functioned as a round-the-clock surveillance machine. Its design ensured that no prisoner could ever see the 'inspector' who conducted surveillance from the privileged central location within the radial configuration. The prisoner could never know when he was being surveilled -- mental uncertainty that in itself would prove to be a crucial instrument of discipline.

[sperbonzo]

I believe we have little to fear from our government. .

Seriously... have you ever read any history at all?


Ok, on second thought, this HAS to be sarcasm....




.

[pimpmaster9000]

This privacy shit is such a weak argument...

Sure everybody has something to hide but do you guys even understand the amount of data that is generated by just one single individual? I know guys that work for my 3rd world countries state security you would not believe the amount of data they gather BUT the problem with data is that a human has to evaluate it, and at the end of the day its just not cost effective enough...

[DamianJ]

I believe we have little to fear from our government.

Bless you.

[porno jew]

you are free not to use the internet if you don't like it. you don't have a natural right to the internet. quit whining.

[Rochard]

Seriously... have you ever read any history at all?


Ok, on second thought, this HAS to be sarcasm....

.

So the government wants to read my text messages and my email. Really? That's scary. I text messages are mostly about making plans with my family, and email is all business related. They can walk into my house right now, snatch my computer, and the only thing they would learn is that I like boobs and lesbians.

Have I read any history at all? I'm currently getting a degree in history really. Our government... Is made up of our citizens. When they come to round me up they will be my friends - seriously... One friend is a cop here in town and another a sheriff. I honestly don't see the police or our military riding into town rounding up everyone that's Irish, and surely they'll never try to take away our rights to own guns.

My grandmother came to the US in the 1940s after the Nazis killed her entire family right in front of her. I'm not worried about the FBI reading my text messages.

[topnotch, standup guy]

So the government wants to read my text messages and my email. Really? That's scary. I text messages are mostly about making plans with my family, and email is all business related. They can walk into my house right now, snatch my computer, and the only thing they would learn is that I like boobs and lesbians.

Have I read any history at all? I'm currently getting a degree in history really. Our government... Is made up of our citizens. When they come to round me up they will be my friends - seriously... One friend is a cop here in town and another a sheriff. I honestly don't see the police or our military riding into town rounding up everyone that's Irish, and surely they'll never try to take away our rights to own guns.

My grandmother came to the US in the 1940s after the Nazis killed her entire family right in front of her. I'm not worried about the FBI reading my text messages.

They ain't no Hitlers, but I'm not so comfortable with the likes of a Rick Santorum or a Sarah Palin having all of my data at their fingertips.

Your mileage may vary.
.

[Rochard]

They ain't no Hitlers, but I'm not so comfortable with the likes of a Rick Santorum or a Sarah Palin having all of my data at their fingertips.

Your mileage may vary.
.

But your perfectly okay with Google having it and giving away it to the highest bidder?

What is Rick Santorum gonna do? Outlaw porn? Good luck with that.

[DamianJ]

But your perfectly okay with Google having it and giving away it to the highest bidder?

You do realise that what google sells is anonymised data, right?

And that this law would allow access to not just text messages and email, but web history?

So politicians, celebs, etc would run the risk of having all of their online activity made public?

Do you think most porn consumers would want everyone to know what they are watching?

How about political activists?

How about pro-choice movements?

Witness protection schemes?

And you have heard about data run by government agencies is fairly regularly burnt to disc and just left on trains etc?

You need to stop thinking "I'm alright, Jack, fuck everyone else" and show just a little compassion about people not all sharing your Fox News views.

[Paul]

You do realise that what google sells is anonymised data, right?

And that this law would allow access to not just text messages and email, but web history?

So politicians, celebs, etc would run the risk of having all of their online activity made public?

Do you think most porn consumers would want everyone to know what they are watching?

How about political activists?

How about pro-choice movements?

Witness protection schemes?

And you have heard about data run by government agencies is fairly regularly burnt to disc and just left on trains etc?

You need to stop thinking "I'm alright, Jack, fuck everyone else" and show just a little compassion about people not all sharing your Fox News views.

People usually end up with the government they deserve

[ottopottomouse]

Everyone has something to hide? Like what? What I want my wife to pick u for Dinner on her way home or where my kid is spending the night?

I believe we have little to fear from our government. On the other hand, private businesses have tons of data on each and every one of us - that's scary.

you've posted that your eyesight is terrible.

police state will now extrapolate backwards and punish you for being unfit to drive for the last 5 years. etc.

[asdasd]

Remember as a Gamma, Rochard, to avert your gaze if ever in the presence of world comptroller mustapha mond!

[DatingFactory]

Always interesting posts form you.

[halfpint]

wonder if this will affect the uk porn traffic

[$5 submissions]

Don't worry, the US government will have all of your info also.... from everywhere on the planet....

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/201...tacenter/all/1

You should all read the entire article, but here is a TINY taste of it...

"Under construction by contractors with top-secret clearances, the blandly named Utah Data Center is being built for the National Security Agency. A project of immense secrecy, it is the final piece in a complex puzzle assembled over the past decade. Its purpose: to intercept, decipher, analyze, and store vast swaths of the world?s communications as they zap down from satellites and zip through the underground and undersea cables of international, foreign, and domestic networks. The heavily fortified $2 billion center should be up and running in September 2013. Flowing through its servers and routers and stored in near-bottomless databases will be all forms of communication, including the complete contents of private emails, cell phone calls, and Google searches, as well as all sorts of personal data trails?parking receipts, travel itineraries, bookstore purchases, and other digital ?pocket litter.? It is, in some measure, the realization of the ?total information awareness? program created during the first term of the Bush administration?an effort that was killed by Congress in 2003 after it caused an outcry over its potential for invading Americans? privacy.

But ?this is more than just a data center,? says one senior intelligence official who until recently was involved with the program. The mammoth Bluffdale center will have another important and far more secret role that until now has gone unrevealed. It is also critical, he says, for breaking codes. And code-breaking is crucial, because much of the data that the center will handle?financial information, stock transactions, business deals, foreign military and diplomatic secrets, legal documents, confidential personal communications?will be heavily encrypted. According to another top official also involved with the program, the NSA made an enormous breakthrough several years ago in its ability to cryptanalyze, or break, unfathomably complex encryption systems employed by not only governments around the world but also many average computer users in the US. The upshot, according to this official: ?Everybody?s a target; everybody with communication is a target.?



This should scare the crap out of everyone, not matter whether you've "done nothing wrong" or not.



.


.

But it's for your own good

[_Richard_]

so we get the inside scoop on those dashingly entertaining royals?

no?

[sinman]

As far as I'm aware monitoring of sorts already exists on a smaller scale. The only difference at the moment is that a court order is required at the moment. I don't like the idea of anyone monitoring my private business but in reality it already goes in many ways via various marketing companies collecting data about us and building profiles in order to sell us more stuff we really don't need.

[VIXEN ESCORTS]

Fucking hell that is some scary shit, imagine people knowing you joined britishslags.com part of the Mr Ban network of websites run by Dvtimes aka JessicaCute on another British forum.

[SimonScans]

When the Tories got elected in 2010 two of the first things they did were to scrap two big Big Brother databases. The unified NHS one with all your medical details and the council one where they had photos of your house to make sure you were paying enough local tax. So at the very least they get it that databases full of stuff about you aren't vote winners.

But now all of a sudden there's a database that they do want. One that looks exactly like the one the EU wants all its member states to have.

http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleases.../484&type=HTML

"The Data Retention Directive (Directive 2006/24/EC) requires Member States to ensure that these operators retain certain categories of data (for identifying identity and details of phone calls made and emails sent, excluding the content of those communications) for the purpose of the investigation, detection and prosecution of serious crime, as defined by national law. The data must be retained for a minimum of six months to a maximum of two years (to be decided by Member State in transposing the Directive into national laws). "

[u-Bob]

At times like these I'm actually happy a large part of all email traffic is spam

[CurrentlySober]

We don't expose ourselves indiscriminately..

Well, speak for yourself 'n all that... For me, indiscriminately exposing myself, is more of a lifestyle choice...

[Markul]

haha it's the same in Denmark, anything you say on the phone or via the internet is logged and can potentially be accessed to investigate terrorism.

[Dirty Dane]

haha it's the same in Denmark, anything you say on the phone or via the internet is logged and can potentially be accessed to investigate terrorism.

Not anything/what you say, but which number, time and length for phone and protocols and time for internet. Big difference from sound recording and keystrokes logs

[ClickCastX]

This is scary shit!