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UK Web Snooping Plan Invades Privacy, Despite Claims To the Contrary
sweetpea86 writes with a snippet from this story at TechWorld:"The UK government's proposal to separate communications data from content, as part of new plans to allow intelligence services to monitor all internet activity, is infeasible according to a panel of technology experts. Speaking at the 'Scrambling for Safety' conference in London, Ross Anderson, professor of security engineering at the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory, said that the distinction between traffic data as being harmless and content as being sensitive is becoming less and less relevant. 'Now that people are living more and more of their lives online, the pattern of who you communicate with and in what order gives away pretty well everything,' he said. 'This means that, in data protection terms, traffic data is now very often going to be specially sensitive data.'"
the problem is that the ISP's aren't powerful ENOUGH imo.
They don't *want* to snoop, it slows their networks down to have to log everything, it involves major monetary investment to do so.
It's the government's who are vulnerable to Lobbying from the powerful rich corporations and groups like the *IAA who lobby for this crap. It's the governments who ignore the cries of the people about it.
Had the ISPs remained independent they'd have even LESS clout than they do now. The UK still has quite a few ISPs and there's less of a monopoly on areas than in the US, but companies aren't officially allowed to Lobby the government. I say officially because, frankly, theres been quite a few Cash for X scandals in the last decade or two. The most recent being Cash for Dinner with the PM scandal. So the UK Government will listen to those with power and money (Look at how they cosied up to Murdoch before the Phone Tapping Scandal, he barely needed to *pay* them anything to get them to do what he wanted)
It's not the ISPs fault that the government looks after itself before it looks after the people. It doesn't represent the people. It doesn't represent the corporations. It just looks to save itself, and at the moment that comes from listening to those with the cash.
It pays to be obvious, especially if you have a reputation for being subtle.
The government seeing the data should not be that big a deal unless you have something to hide
Why not allow the government to install cameras in every room of your house? What are you hiding? You could be committing crimes in your house, after all.
"The government seeing the data should not be that big a deal unless you have something to hide"
How about 'it's none of your fscking business, nor anyone else's, who I talk to' ?
How about that?
Government should exist as a way for society to collectively enforce a code of law, and to provide common services we all need. As far as I'm concerned this is way, way, way beyond its remit.