The UK Government has been in talks with communications firms in an attempt to monitor internet usage. This plan from the government is an attempt to overhaul their surveillance tactics which they claim is much needed in the fight against crime and terror.
Previously plans were to hold a central database which were scrapped and the new internet monitoring plan which will require service providers through to mobile phone networks to hand over details of emails, phone calls, visited sites including social networking etc to the government.
Although there was strong opposition from other parties over a centralised database, the main concern for internet monitoring is who has access to all the information and what information will be available. In an attempt to quiet the critics the Home Office said that “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.”
More importantly for the UK population it was said that only the contact would be recorded. They want to know who is talking to who and how – not what is being said. How they are going to safeguard the contents of the phone call or email is of utter importance and questions need to be raised further on this subject.
As technology advances its becoming more and more apparent that we all communicate with each other online via email and social networking sites more than we do via traditional landlines. It seems that the government want to know who we talk to and how we talk to them and yet the contents is not going to be given out.
The consultation will continue to run until July 20th 2009.
April 28, 2009
Big Brother