Warning - Big Brother could kill off British way of life

[TonyGosling]

'Big Brother' warning over Government database that records EVERY phone call and e-mail in Britain
A 'Big Brother' database recording every single phone call and e-mail made in Britain would threaten the British way of life, the information watchdog has warned.
Information Commissioner Richard Thomas said such a Government-run database would have serious data protection implications.
Amid speculation a massive database is already being planned, he declared it would be a 'step too far'.
May's draft legislative programme included provision for a Bill 'to modify the procedures for acquiring communications data and allow this data to be retained'.
However, Mr Thomas declared as he launched his annual report today that any such database would have serious ramifications.
He said: 'I am absolutely clear that the targeted, and duly authorised, interception of the communications of suspects can be invaluable in the fight against terrorism and other serious crime.
'But there needs to be the fullest public debate about the justification for, and implications of, a specially created database - potentially accessible to a wide range of law enforcement authorities - holding details of everyone's telephone and internet communications.
'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?'.........

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1035361/Big-Brother-warning-Go vernment-database-records-EVERY-phone-e-mail-Britain.html

[Desmond]

I read about this proposed database a while ago and was left unsure if the database would merely be a list of senders and receivers or if it would actually other things such as recordings or transcripts.

Does anyone know the answer to that?

[fish5133]

Just something I have done on occasions to muck up various databases and that is to fill in all those silly questionnaires and surveys you get about what is the best bog roll etc and put erroneous info on it. e.g about your age, gender and race. Wondering one day when I come through customs I will get stopped as they are expecting a 90 year old afro caribbean

[kbo234]

From today's 'Daily Mash':

http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/politics/politics-headlines/public-has-n othing-to-fear-from-gigantic%2c-all%11powerful-database--200807161100/

PUBLIC HAS NOTHING TO FEAR FROM GIGANTIC, ALL-POWERFUL DATABASE

THE government last night dismissed fears over its massive, evil database insisting it would only ever be used to peer into the very depths of your soul.



Ministers have been forced to defend plans to record every email, text message, internet search and phone call, against critics who say it is both terrifying and tremendously fu*ked-up.

But home secretary Jacqui Smith stressed the database was not only essential to the war on terror, but would bring government and citizen much closer together.

She said: "Look, the thing is, I like you - a lot - and I just want to know everything about you.

"I can't 'give' myself to someone unless I know I can trust them completely. D'you know what I'm saying?

"I need to know your hopes, your fears, your dreams, your freaky online habits and your socially unacceptable opinions."

She added: "Think of it as a romantic dinner where you're telling me your entire life story, except the table's bugged and I'm listening to you in that suspicious looking van across the road."

Insisting she would only have us killed if she had no choice, Ms Smith said: "The easiest thing is to just stop being different in any way.

"But, on the outside chance your data does match our Profile of Unacceptability, I will make sure they use a high-powered rifle."

[img]http://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:Jq52SZWIDW_JAM:http://images. newsquest.co.uk/image.php%3Fid%3D775912%26type%3Dfull[/img]

The home secretary really, really likes you

[TonyGosling]

“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?”

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has also served enforcement notices against HM Revenue & Customs and the MoD for their recent high-profile data breaches.

Both departments must now provide progress reports documenting in detail how the recommendations have been, or are being, implemented to improve data protection compliance. Failure to comply with an enforcement notice is a criminal offence.

Mr Thomas' annual report highlights that the ICO received 24,851 enquiries and complaints concerning personal information in 2007/8. It has prosecuted 11 individuals and organisations in the past 12 months.

[ashgarth]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/olympics/london_2012/article439 3536.ece
From The Times
July 25, 2008
This project is sponsored by George Orwell and his Big Brother
Ross Clark
Anyone who has lived without a television will know how hard it is to convince TV Licensing staff that is possible to exist without constant video entertainment. It is one more freedom that is to be taken from us. Like the telescreens in George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four that citizens could turn down but not off, the giant screens planned for 60 towns and cities will make watching television compulsory.
When the BBC and the organising committee of the London Olympics first mooted a network of screens the assumption was that they would be there only during the Games, allowing us all to share the excitement. It turns out that they are to stay and broadcast audibly for up to 18 hours a day.
As if the intrusion were not bad enough, we will, of course, have to pay for the screens, and not just through the licence fee: residents of Middlesbrough, for example, will be paying £35,000 towards the set-up costs, plus an annual £28,000 running cost. Surely councils’ leisure budgets should be spent persuading us to get away from the TV, not to get us in front of it.
It is promised that besides showing news the screens will be used to promote culture; that they will be “digital canvases for local artists, film-makers and students”. But there is an ulterior motive, given away by Bob Belam, of Waltham Forest council. The screens, he said, would be used to “provide important information and will be able to get out messages about antisocial behaviour”.
RELATED LINKS
Olympic-size television coming to your town
They are less about entertaining us than about control – another part of the Orwellian machinery of the modern British city. It isn’t hard to imagine how they will be used: “We are interrupting coverage to remind you that bathing in the fountains is prohibited.”
I can foresee walking through an empty town centre, to the sound of a message, delivered with no irony from a 30kW screen: “Citizens are reminded that they can cut their carbon footprint by not leaving their TVs on standby.”
— Ross Clark is author of The Road to Southend Pier: One Man’s Struggle against the Surveillance Society
HAVE YOUR SAY
Yes the world Is Definately a Twilight Zone...Really Heats Up If George Bush And Company Have their War Zone in the middle East With Iran...This Is How I see It With oR W/O TV
WWIII+ Afghanastan, Iraq and Iran...There Are Your Three...
I can't wait to see how things go when Russia...China Enter.
Joe, Toms River, usa
Quit TV in 2003 and haven't looked back. I guess no one's learned from the traffic camera radar attacks? Looks like a new sport will be born: big screen TV meet David's slingshot!
Veritas Vincit, Memphis TN, US
I am living in the twilight zone, this Planet is becoming crazier and crazier, let me out of this insane asylum. The skies are being sprayed with chemicals 24/7 and nobody is concerned? this is already George Orwells 1984, we are there.
Arthur Guy, Gloucester, England
Remember this boys dont worry about the tv screens the kids will have them destroyed within a few weeks haha
Mick, DERRY, Ireland
I quit watching television almost 6 years ago, and do not miss it one bit. I would rather resent it if I had to pay a tax to subsidize giant public TV screens, and earnestly hope that this idea never comes here to where I live.
Ed, Mankato, MN, USA
I cannot believe the people of this country are letting this go as far as it is going. This is an outrage,for godsake people wake up.If we say no they cannot implement this,but we have got to do it together.
ROSEANN BRINDLEY, Staffordshire, uk
Things are getting weirder and spookier by the day in this country. Eric Arthur Blair (aka. George Orwell) must be watching from his grave with extreme interest at where this is all leading to. Then again, I suspect he knew that back in 1948. Only thing he couldnt foresee was all the technology.
Max, Chelmsford, UK
As if it wasn't bad enough to have to endure enormous advertising billboards everywhere you go in urban areas....now corporate & government propaganda is to be taken to the next level.
John, Brighton,
Something must be done. Our Fathers fought two manipulated World Wars to stop this. And now it's our Government???

I think not!
Rob, Presteigne, Powys
These things will be vandalised on a regular basis. Maybe opponents of the installations could club together and provide a fund to pay off the fines of those convicted of the vandalism?
Alex McGregor, Plymouth, UK
Will anyone who walks past the giant TV and glances at it have to prove they have a TV license, or face prosecution? Nothing would surprise me about this country anymore.
Arthur, Newcastle,

[ashgarth]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1036561/Now-1-000-laws-let-sta te-home.html
Now there are 1,000 laws that will let the state into your home
By Simon Walters
Last updated at 8:56 AM on 20th July 2008
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Extreme measures: There are more than 1,000 laws which give officials the right to enter private property
The march of the Big Brother state under Labour was highlighted last night as it was revealed that there are now 1,043 laws that give the authorities the power to enter a home or business.
Nearly half have been introduced since Labour came to power 11 years ago. They include the right to:
• Invade your home to see if your pot plants have pests or do not have a 'plant passport' (Plant Health England Order 2005).
• Survey your home and garden to see if your hedge is too high (Anti-Social Behaviour Act 2003).
• Check that accommodation given to asylum seekers is not being lived in by non-asylum seekers (Immigration and Asylum Act 1999).
• Raid a house to check if unlicensed gambling is taking place (Gambling Act 2005 Inspection Regulations 2007).
• Seize fridges without the correct energy rating (Energy Information Household Refrigerators and Freezers Regulations 2004).
The rise in clipboard-wielding state inspectors flies in the face of repeated pledges by Ministers to curb the power of bureaucrats.
The full extent of the state's 'powers of entry' is revealed in documents slipped out quietly by the Government last week.

More...
• In full: Home Office list of our 1,000-plus Big Brother laws
• MAIL ON SUNDAY COMMENT: These ludicrous, and sinister, snooping laws
The information was posted on the Home Office website, but in a highly unusual move, the computer file was locked to prevent it being copied or printed. A secret Home Office password was required to access the file.
A Home Office spokeswoman denied the restrictions were an attempt to stop the state's powers being circulated more widely.
She claimed it was a 'mistake' and the file would be unlocked tomorrow.
Some 420 new powers of entry are the product of laws introduced since 1997. A further 16 are in laws due to be approved by Parliament in the next few weeks.
A recent study by the Centre for Policy Studies think-tank warned that the 'proliferation and variety' of such laws mean householders can no longer 'realistically be aware' of their rights and legal obligations.
Gordon Brown last year announced a review of 'powers of entry' laws and said they would be subjected to a 'liberty test' to stop abuses by the state.
However, new powers set to be approved by Parliament include inspecting for non-human genetic material, for looted cultural property from Iraq and for 'undeclared' carbon dioxide, as well as enforcing bin tax.
Town hall 'bin police' already have the right to enter homes, take photographs, seize contents of bins, and 'investigate as required'.
Householders can be fined up to £5,000 if they refuse entry or 'obstruct' an official.
Shadow Communities Secretary Eric Pickles said: 'Day by day under Labour, the rights and liberties of law-abiding citizens are being eroded.'

[911Eyewitness]

Tony, I choose the places I have lived carefully throughout my life. I am where I am because the home is still completely your own except under a real court order and only by the courts police. I have many times turned local police from my door laughing as well as inspectors.

Even in a search on the road you do not have to allow them into your pockets or bags as they are intimate to you. Your "personal" things are held to a higher regard. Amazing but true. I guess the Constitution is still too young but they are working hard to take away what they gave - which one can do - as long as you gave it you can take it back. They have already turned over their subjects to the EU.

I had to leave the UK 5 years back because they got too intrusive. Being stopped in Camden and crotch sniffed by dogs is not something I want to feel is a casual lifestyle.


There are only a few pockets in the world like this. The US is in sadder shape than you and it is the Home of the Free.