Internet activity 'to be monitored' under new laws
Ministers are preparing a major expansion of the Government's powers to monitor the email exchanges and website visits of every person in the UK, it was reported today.
1:07PM BST 01 Apr 2012
Under legislation expected in next month's Queen's Speech, internet companies will be instructed to install hardware enabling GCHQ – the Government's electronic "listening" agency – to examine "on demand" any phone call made, text message and email sent, and website accessed in "real time", The Sunday Times reported.
A previous attempt to introduce a similar law was abandoned by the former Labour government in 2006 in the face of fierce opposition.
However ministers believe it is essential that the police and security services have access to such communications data in order to tackle terrorism and protect the public.
Although GCHQ would not be able to access the content of such communications without a warrant, the legislation would enable it to trace people individuals or groups are in contact with, and how often and for how long they are in communication.
The Home Office confirmed that ministers were intending to legislate "as soon as parliamentary time allows".
"It is vital that police and security services are able to obtain communications data in certain circumstances to investigate serious crime and terrorism and to protect the public. We need to take action to maintain the continued availability of communications data as technology changes," a spokesman said.
"Communications data includes time, duration and dialling numbers of a phone call, or an email address. It does not include the content of any phone call or email and it is not the intention of Government to make changes to the existing legal basis for the interception of communications."
Nick Pickles, director of the Big Brother Watch campaign group, said: "This is an unprecedented step that will see Britain adopt the same kind of surveillance seen in China and Iran.
"This is an absolute attack on privacy online and it is far from clear this will actually improve public safety, while adding significant costs to internet businesses.
"If this was such a serious security issue why has the Home Office not ensured these powers were in place before the Olympics?"
Shami Chakrabarti, director of the civil rights group Liberty, said that both the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats had resisted the plan when they were in opposition.
"There is an element of whoever you vote for the empire strikes back," she told Sky News's Murnaghan programme.
"This is more ambitious than anything that has been done before. It is a pretty drastic step in a democracy.
"It was resisted under the last government. The coalition bound itself together in the language of civil liberties. Do they still mean it?"
Conservative backbencher Margot James said ministers would come under pressure to water down the proposals as the legislation passed through Parliament.
"I am sure there will be considerable pressure brought to bear as the proposals are debated for protections to be built in to protect people's privacy," she told the Murnaghan programme.
source; daily telegraph
Comments
there are two extensions but the one I refer to is called Collusion
here is a link to it
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/collusion/
the other item is called DeSopa, not quite sure but something ti do with stopping surveillance in the US. here is a link to it. Collusion s great to use, most intriguing.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/desopa/
thanks
there is a pro gramme, add on for Firefox that shows what sites are connecting to us, in the form of a flow diagram. i have it installed but forgot about it. i will look it up an keep you informed
This may be a dumb question, but is there software available (to put on our individual computers) to monitor who/what is monitoring us?
simply passing into law what has been going on for decades. only now, the idiots in MI 5 and MI 6 and the boys and girls in GCHQ probably have an updated version of the promise software in place. maybe they have ties now to the NSA, so there is full integration. closing the data surveillance loop perhaps.
Hope the people act upon it.