Privacy is Dead in the UK
This is truely a bad week for those of us who value our privacy. The UK government has used the terrorism excuse to put in place several new measures to spy on those of us who live here.
For a start the government has allowed a whole range of organisations to look at who we phone and when. This includes the location of the nearest cell site when we do it from our mobile phone. There is no oversight of this by the courts. They can just log in and download our itemised bill.
Then the government has told us that we must give up encryption keys when asked. If not we face 2 years in prison. And if you have really forgotten the key thats two years in prison mate. So better write it down somewhere.
The majority of people have been convinced by the argument and I continually hear the refrain "I have nothing to hide".
That is possibly true of all the people I know but they have all failed to realise that some government employees can't be trusted, and will reveal what they know about someone for a fee. Lets face it goverment jobs don't pay a fortune and criminals are likely to offer money and the chance are someone will be tempted.
I can't wait for the first case to come up where a local council officer has used it to spy on his girlfriend/wife/enemy.
In a state where Police now rgularly prosecute people who defend their homes from burglars what do you expect?
I'm guessing call information will be made available via council's intranets or some centralised government service. Or maybe they've done a deal with Google so civil servants can Google for names, numbers and keywords from conversations! ;-) I laugh about that now, but give it a few more years...
Mind you, I've said for decades that privacy is an illusion. The UK has had a vast network of surveillance cameras forever and runs face-recognition software (in several places) that can track people. The network of roadside cameras can track license plates and, hence, car movement over most of the country (at least where the newer computerized cameras are installed). There's never been real privacy on the Internet either.
You are correct to raise the Electronic Number plate recognition. I was on vaction in Cornwall two weeks ago and the local paper said that all the roads into the county arte now monitored. The Police now routinely sit at the County border waiting for someone to pass in a car that triggers the alarm. They got their statisics up by sitting around witing for the criminals (or anyone who triggers the alarm) to pass.
WHAT? I hope not because I'm sitting here in the buff! 8-O