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UK Intel Agencies Have Been Spying on Millions of People 'Of No Security Interest' Since 1990s (arstechnica.com)
The UK's intelligence agencies such as MI5, MI6, and GCHQ have been collecting personal information from citizens who are "unlikely to be of intelligence or security interest" since the 1990s, a thousand pages of documents published on Thursday revealed. The documents were published as a result of a lawsuit filed by Privacy International, a UK-based registered charity that defends and promotes the right to privacy across the world. According to the documents, GCHQ and others have been collecting bulk personal data sets since 1998 under the provisions of section 94 of the Telecommunications Act 1984. J.M. Porup, reports for Ars Technica: These records can be "anything from your private medical records, your correspondence with your doctor or lawyer, even what petitions you have signed, your financial data, and commercial activities," Privacy International legal officer Millie Graham Wood said in a statement. "The information revealed by this disclosure shows the staggering extent to which the intelligence agencies hoover up our data." Nor, it seems, are BPDs only being used to investigate terrorism and serious crime; they can and are used to protect Britain's "economic well-being" -- including preventing pirate copies of Harry Potter books from leaking before their release date. The so-called "Bulk Personal Datasets," or BPDs are so powerful, in fact, that the normally toothless UK parliament watchdog that oversees intelligence gathering, the Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC), recommended in February that "Class Bulk Personal Dataset warrants are removed from the new legislation." These data sets are so large and collect so much information so indiscriminately that they even include information on dead people.
Telecommunications Act 1984
*1984*
I have been told again and again that the Orwellian surveillance nightmare states of the 21st century only exist to protect us from terrorism. And also that only terrorist-sympathizers would ever oppose them. Surely this can't be right?
Really. Who care anymore? The ideals of western democracy have been dying for a long time, and most people are too overworked, in-debt, anti-informed, and propagandised to bother caring anymore.
What pretense our ascendancies have for respecting the rule or law, the betterment of society, or the shared social contract are evaporating along with the value of our jobs, currencies, values and way of life (such as remains). Backwards, totalitarian, extremist, reactionary philosophies are springing up left and right, young people inflamed, groups openly rejecting and condemning western society outright, it economic, intellectual, philosophical, and even democratic basis. And who can blame them for being so energized, when our own ruling classes increasingly in their deeds and even words, hold all foundations of our civilization in contempt. At least bigotry, jihad, and greed offer something to believe in. Our leaders offer us lies, decay, and lives with no purpose.
So of course the UK and US intel agencies are transitioning to secret police organisations. More and more people are getting fed up of the raw deal the elites have handed them, and the empty propaganda is beginning to stop working. When the Ideologial State Apparatus fails, the Repressive State Apparatus must step in. The ruling class knows this, and has moved accordingly.
I'm too tired to care anymore. I say, let the people be shown the consequences of apathy, and of believing in vipers and their lies.
Until another 'TRIBE' comes along and relieves you of your freedom. The whole point of these types of services is to protect nations.
The secret services become the TRIBE that relieves you of your freedom, mate. And the best part is you just handed it over to them.
I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
Just to play Devil's advocate a bit here, but isn't this exactly the way the system is supposed to work?
Having information on someone is what puts them in the "no security interest" category, rather than the "unknown" category. In reviewing that information, crimes like copyright infringement may be discovered, and that puts the person in a different category entirely.
Now, if understand the typical Slashdotter's perspective, the government shouldn't be allowed to gather information on people of "no security interest", but they can't know who that is without gathering information. Naturally, then, we will lobby to prohibit all gathering of information, and when successful, we will mock the government's eventual failure to find people who are of "security interest" with their then-nonexistent capabilities.
You do not have a moral or legal right to do absolutely anything you want.
Well, at least this report was obtained legally.
Sure, but you should see the reports on the reporters reporting it!
You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office
Well, they're preventatively collecting information on everyone because they don't know in the future who will and won't become a terrorist.
Or for another reason entirely.