New Plan In UK For "Big Brother" Database

POPE Mad Mitch writes "The BBC is reporting that Tony Blair is going to unveil plans on Monday to build a single database to pull together and share every piece of personal data from all government departments. The claimed justification is to improve public services. The opposition party and the Information Commission have both condemned the plan as another step towards a 'Big Brother' society. Sharing information in this way is currently prohibited by the 'over-zealous' data protection legislation. An attempt to build a similar database was a key part of the, now severely delayed, ID card scheme."

Comments

Civil Rights: USA or Europe?

[reporter]

Numerous writers on SlashDot have stated that they will move out of the USA because Washington has increasingly trampled on civil rights: e.g., the right to privacy. Recently, Washington has announced that law enforcement can, at its discretion, open your mail to read it.

The same writers who justifiably criticize Washington praise the Europeans and Canada. Yet, the British government seems to be just as indifferent to civil rights as Washington.

So, here is an interesting question: Which is the best protector of civil rights? USA or Europe?

Re:European Digital Privacy Directive?

[c6gunner]

Perhaps we could just rename Jeremiah Cornelius to "troll".