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Subscribe to RSSLONDON - Britain’s Government on Thursday confirmed plans to log details about every email, phone call or text message in the country to help anti-terror services track suspects.
Police and security agencies will also be able to access records of activity on social network sites, webmail, Internet-based phone calls and online gaming.
Britain’s Home Secretary, Theresa May, said the change – costing $2.7 billion public funds - was needed to keep up with how criminals were using new technology.
But many others, including lawmakers from May’s own Conservative Party such as David Davis, who described it as “incredibly intrusive”.
Under the proposed law, which has yet to be approved by parliament, telecoms companies would be obliged to gather a wealth of information on their customers and keep it for up to one year.
Read more on the story at ITV News
Local councils would be barred from access to the data, but police, the security services, customs and tax officials would be able to use the information.
The Home Office said it would not need to read the body text of emails or eavesdrop on phone calls without a warrant.
The chief executive of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection told ITV News that he welcomed the government's new plans into tracking suspects through their use of emails and websites. Peter Davies said that data is needed "to protect the public" from serious offenders.
However, Nick Pickles, director of privacy campaign group Big Brother Watch, said the proposals were "the very definition of Big Brother" and described the law as “dangerous”.
In an editorial article in Britain’s Murdoch-owned mass-market daily tabloid, The Sun, May defended her proposals as “sensible and limited," adding that worries that the Bill would stomp on free expression were "ridiculous" and dreamed up by "conspiracy theorists."
The Home Office claimed the cost of the data-gathering would be covered by reductions in tax fraud and seizure of criminal assets.
ITV News is the UK partner of NBC News.
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If it puts the whackjobs in a cell for the rest of their life so be it!! The price you pay for freedom these days is a lot higher than the good old days. You can read all my emails and text, I do not care, you will only come to the conclusion that I get a hella lotta sex and dislike any kind of authority,lol.
You cannot pay the price for freedom by giving up freedom.
"Those who would sacrafice essential liberty to purchase temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety" Ben Franklin
Rocky you are the perfect example of what is wrong with this world, you are so afraid of your own shadow that you would allow the government to spy on you 24/7. I was never afraid of the terrorists, only little girls would be afraid of a few idiots with box cutters. I was attacked by rednecks in my home town who were carrying much more dangerous weapons than box cutters before I was even out of highschool.
The man who is constantly looking over his shoulder in fear that someone will stab him in the back does so because he himself has spent his life stabbing others in the back. We fear others because we have made others fear us. We are afraid some other country will force their way of life on us because we have forced our way of life on everyone else. We fear others taking what we have because everthing we have we have taken from someone else.
So, Rocky, what you're saying is your right hand is really sore and cramped?
I presume you are in a cell?
And Rocky would have been the first person to turn in Anne Frank and her family, wouldnt you Big Boy?
Invent the problem and when sunk up to the neck, shoot all around.
British were "too smart" and admitted all sorts of Islamic radicals, criminals and terrorists all around the world. They were proud to give them liberal doles.
When these Islamic radicals and terrorists are back to their old and normal business, Britain is spending 2.7 billion pounds to curtail "freedom of speech."
Can some be more idiotic?
O-M-G!!!
Big Brother has now shown his face.
Anything you say can be, & will be, used against you if they choose.
USA whence forth is he coming out of hiding?
Heaven help us all!
Big Brother will be here in the fall when our listening post in Utah opens for monitoring all communication.
The Banksters are getting worried we all might wake up and revolt . So they have to watch everyone for that terrorist activity.
America land of the free (as long as you are in the 1% ) home of the scared $hitless. 236 yrs and we are worse than the country we fought for independence.
The potus and all members of congress and the senate are employees of the Criminal Jewish Banking financial terrorist cartel. They should all be arrested for treason.
We have the largest military on the planet but they follow these criminals orders.
"TRUTH is the enemy of the STATE"
Paul Joseph Goebbels was a German politician and Reich Minister of Propaganda in Nazi Germany
“Truth hurts. Maybe not as much as jumping on a bicycle with a seat missing, but it hurts.”
-Naked Gun
...adding that worries that the Bill would stomp on free expression were "ridiculous" and dreamed up by "conspiracy theorists."
So if I don't like the idea, I'm ridiculous, and I'm a conspiracy theorist?
Well how can anyone argue with that? Monitor away you benevolent and all knowing government.
Fear isn't worth all this is it? I don't think so, because the governments are just filling in the role of terrorists now. It's the new excuse for everything they do that is intrusive.
Chilling.
This has nothing to do with "terrorism", terrorism is just a catchall word they use to describe anyone who doesn't agree with globalized capitalism. This is about making sure you and I aren't saying things that might wake the hypnotized zombies up from the trance like state the propaganda machine has them under. We lost our freedom 100 years ago when the banksters took over this country, they are just afraid we will take it back, this is about protecting the 1% from the 99%. They will hire some sadistic thugs to beat us into submission everytime we take to the streets and demand our freedom and liberty.
Yeah, I'm not willing to pay the price of freedom for safety. It's easy to see this is where we all are headed, and it's sad.
Funny enough, Britain already HAS all their guns!
A truly justified excuse. How convenient.
And who isn't a terrorist if you read their catch all definitions; just asking questions can get you labeled as a terrorist supporter
Britain...Tried to put the world under british rule all these past centuries,didn't work...Now all the brit gov't has left to torment is their own...unbelievable...
Moan and groan all you guys want. Whatever reason you think it's a conspiracy, how is it any different than the Patriot Act? Look it up, read over it closely with all of its revisions. Big Brother has always been here. If it hits the news, that means it's not news at all. Its what you don't see or hear about that you should be worried about. However, if you ladies and gents know anything about communication and collaboration, local, state, and federal agencies don't have the best track record when dealing with things outside their jurisdiction. They aren't nice to each other and the agencies that have more boots on the ground often don't have access to the info they need. I say the UK is doing the right thing. However, if someone is arrested for anything other than conspiracy of terrorism I think they should pass a law that grants those people immunity, since the info does not require a warrant. At the very least snail-mail may become popular again.
i like the comments i have been reading.. look at the patriot act and the unmanned drones they are using on us now... they say it is to protect our freedom.. when was the last terrorist attack? its all bs just so they can control the population... Britain is first and our government will follow... there is not escape we choose to let this happen... it is all in hopes of the New World Order that is being pushed by the people who control the world. call them whatever you wish the elite, bilderburg, obama etc. bs...all bs.. its only a matter of time before more of our privacy is taken by our government.. and the people who post any negative on here will be put on a list by our government watch..
.
The real terrorism is the ever-increasing surveillance of private citizens by paranoid governments that want complete control of every humanoid on this planet.
With the Queens diamond 60, the Olympics, a collapsing Europe and an entire Islamic front very upset with the crowns military record in the middle east, I thinks it's a bit unfair to say Great Brittan has no legitimate terror fears.
Last time I checked, the British government were under no illusions where they stand with their people. They have a real fear of insurrection too. Hooligan season is becoming more frequent.
Also I see no where in either constitution (US or UK) that guarantees the right to anonymity. You can and always do state loudly that you hate the governments you elected because you are free to do that. It's not like they don't already know.
What you are not allowed to do is organize crime, form an insurection, or hinder the law or military using public broadcasting methods.
In two years we have seen 3 countries go into full revolt resulting in thousands dead using just such means.
If you cant own up to what you say, it's not worth saying now is it.
However. I hate the godamn patriot act. It defies the constitution in so many ways who can post them all and we will never get a congress that will kill that thing from planet nazi.
What to do? I can't hate on either side. All I can say is don't fall for the revolution game and get involved in local government if you can.
i like the comments i have been reading.. look at the patriot act and the unmanned drones they are using on us now... they say it is to protect our freedom.. when was the last terrorist attack? its all bs just so they can control the population... Britain is first and our government will follow... there is not escape we choose to let this happen... it is all in hopes of the New World Order that is being pushed by the people who control the world. call them whatever you wish the elite, bilderburg, obama etc. bs...all bs.. its only a matter of time before more of our privacy is taken by our government.. and the people who post any negative on here will be put on a list by our government watch..
Welcome to the new police state!
oh no, people may have to resort to word of mouth, or by Jove, actual pen and paper! The end is truly near!
What has happened to referendums? let the people decide if they wish to have such laws in order to fight terrorism. You and I know the overwhelming majority would say NO. So then what next? these guys have some other agenda and we lemmings are just going along for the ride or is it time to revolt?
I say revolt. Everyone just sit down and do nothing for 7 straight days and then you will realise the power of the people. Any goverment will be forced to capitulate and remove such nonsensical laws. After all they need your money to exist and 7 days of no economic development which would equal quite a few billion dollars a day lost for England would I think make them drastically change their minds. Try it out.
It's a sad commentary on our world today but unfortunately, a necessary evil. Have at it Uncle Sam - just don't get lost in the "and then we went to his apartment" tripe that's probably the bulk of most emails and texts. We haven't had any recent terrorist attacks in our country because the Brits have been extremely vigilant, and we should all be thanking them for their guts in doing what is not popular but what is prudent. We give up our privacy every day in much smaller and less important ways - fitting rooms, surveillance cameras, Google, even writing a check. So grow up America and realize that this world is not a safe place anymore and we all need to give up stuff in order to make it safer.
i once heard two irish women talking politics, one said "if you think the nazi were bad look to the english that's where they learned it from"!
and now tell me who is winning
the terrorist or the "elected" leaders
what is the cost going to be for each and every person as this amount of information is a mountain for a day let-alone a year
to the public in britian GROW A SET
In the U.S., there are 20,000 highway fatalities a year, over half alcohol-related. Id national security were the issue it would had made a lot more sense to legislate breathalyzer-enabled auto ignition systems rather than Homeland Security. The road to national nosey-Parkerism is insidious- Americans could not believe that the British would have ever put up with such a basic invasion of privacy as having cars prowling the streets looking for unlicensed TV's in use. Arthur Koestler and George Orwell are having a bitter chuckle- along with humourless clapping following a speech by Joseph Stalin, add to the Pitiful Pantheon the picture of Zombies droning "Britons never never never will be slaves."
proposal, my foot! they already do this and so does the U.S.