question
is every other country as fucked up as ours?
or are we a special case?
Surveillance 'culture' in Britain
Moderators: Benn, Calix, senji
Hardly that, if anything my choice of areas in history has concentrated my current affairs focus on the economy and foreign relations. Governments don't often get it right in those areas if they are pre-occupied with social domestic policies. Ask maggie lol.Villa wrote:I preferred your posts before university corrupted you into a socialist.
I don't expect to know where I stand on the political spectrum untill in another five years when I'm fully into the real world. For now I'll be satisfied justifying stealing small items from supermarkets and downloading as sticking it to 'the man'.
whether long range weapon or suicide bomber wicked mind is a weapon of mass destruction
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7507627.stmA central database holding details of everyone's phone calls and emails could be a "step too far for the British way of life", ministers have been warned.
Plans for such a database are rumoured to be in the Communications Data Bill.
But Information Commissioner Richard Thomas said "lines must be drawn" to defend "fundamental liberties".
He told the BBC he was not aware of such a database in any other democracy. He said there had also not been enough debate on the expanded DNA database.
In his annual report, Mr Thomas addressed speculation about plans for a government-run database holding details of telephone and internet communications of the entire British population.
'Full transparency'
He warned that while "targeted and duly authorised" interception of terrorist and other serious crime suspects' communications could be "invaluable" - there should be a full public debate on the justification for such a wide-ranging database.
"Do we really want the police, security services and other organs of the state to have access to more and more aspects of our private lives?" he said in the report.
Later he told BBC Radio 4's World at One programme: "I'm not saying it's right or wrong but I think there should be absolute full transparency."
He said it may make the work of the police simpler, but added: "We do have to stand up and say these are our fundamental liberties and our freedoms and lines have to be drawn somewhere, and there should be a full democratic debate about where exactly the lines should be drawn."
Speculation that the government is considering collecting the information - including numbers dialled, websites visited and location of mobile phones being used - has increased because it has talked about "modifying procedures for acquiring communications data" in its proposed Communications Data Bill.
Currently police and intelligence agencies can ask telecommunication providers for information on phone calls made, texts sent and internet sites visited.
The provider can query the request, which might then go to the interception commissioner and another watchdog - but under the new proposals, that right would be removed.
Fuck that shit. Time to leave this country IMO.
Signatures broken since 2009...