Our Government, 1984, privacy and freedom being taken away

[Stevepage]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-17576745

So our Government would like to be able to monitor everything we do on the internet without a warrant and they plan on making it completely legal. What do you think? I think it's disgusting.

[juansolo]

It'll not happen (well in any legal way anyhow). Tech savvy and nefarious types would just simply encrypt all their traffic, which would make their jobs far more difficult... So expect nothing to change.

[MDV]

It'll not happen (well in any legal way anyhow). Tech savvy and nefarious types would just simply encrypt all their traffic, which would make their jobs far more difficult... So expect nothing to change.

Completely immaterial.

+ one for disgusting.

[MDV]

If real. It is believe nothing day.

[juansolo]

It'll not happen (well in any legal way anyhow). Tech savvy and nefarious types would just simply encrypt all their traffic, which would make their jobs far more difficult... So expect nothing to change.

Completely immaterial.

+ one for disgusting.

*shrugs* it's realistic. It's just like phone tapping. They'll never pass any legal bill covering spying, that's not to say it doesn't happen /black helecopters.

[gordiji]

it'll happen. the US is due to start such operations from a centre in utah (i was reading recently) that has mammoth computing power that can essentially record everything, phone, e mail, credit card use;time & place etc. one must question why such enormous resources are spent on such projects.
by the time 'freedom' (if we ever had it) is lost, it will be too late. those that think such notions are 'conspiricy theories' are asleep at the wheel.   

[MDV]

Realistic doesnt replace right and wrong. Call me naive and idealistic, but its not within the governments remit to spy on its populace. Its a violation of privacy and it contradicts the assumption that we are all innocent until proven guilty.

However ostensibly innocuous or ineffectual its actual implementation, this isnt something that should be ignored because it might not do much, it should be opposed because its immoral.

Edit: just glanced back at that: 'government...its populace'. No, MDV, thats not right is it? We dont belong to or serve them, they belong to and serve us, the random joe civilian. It seems both government and population have forgotten that.

[Stevepage]

^ Absolutely. There's actually an online petition against this on the HMGov website.

http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/32400

Now our Government doesn't take notice of these petitions even though they are supposed to but I think as long as they know we are against it, that's better than nothing.

[juansolo]

Oh I totally agree. Idealistically we should not stand for it. It's just sadly not how things are now, and haven't been since the cold war to be fair. I don't know why they even bothered bringing it to our attention.

When it comes to privacy and security in the online world, it pays to be paranoid.

[Roobubba]

I do wonder just how good most encryption is, anyway. And even then, they'll probably have a clause that means, when asked, you have to be able to unencrypt everything for them to look at. Not sure if that's possible with point-to-point encryption, though.

Presumably the reason they want to do this, ostensibly, is for our nation's safety: to cotton on to 'terrorist threats' (fuzzy terminology for the win) before they (the terrorists... no, not the government, the other terrorists) get a chance to carry out their plans.

In practice, we lost the war on terrorism the day we installed the first full-body X-ray scanner in our airports. Anything further that our government imposes on us now is just adding insult to injury.





If anyone hasn't bought tickets to see Yes Prime Minister on stage near them while this tour is ongoing, I can thoroughly recommend it.

[Sailor Charon]

^ Absolutely. There's actually an online petition against this on the HMGov website.

http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/32400

Now our Government doesn't take notice of these petitions even though they are supposed to but I think as long as they know we are against it, that's better than nothing.

well, they'll soon find out, won't they. :(