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UK Gov't Creating Secret Mega Database On Citizens Without Informing Parliament (theregister.co.uk)

Alexander J Martin, reporting for The Register: The Home Office is secretly creating a centralised database on the good folk of Britain without presenting the capability increases to the public or subjecting them to Parliamentary scrutiny. The Register can reveal the project, which was described as simply a "replatforming" of the department's aging IT infrastructure, has already begun to roll out, with the "first wave" of changes being delivered in what it is calling the Technology Platforms for Tomorrow (TPT) programme. TPT will lay the foundations for this mega database by ushering in "core infrastructure, compute platforms and Live Service capability" changes, primarily using Hadoop, the open source software framework for centralising databases and allowing batch queries and analyses to be run across them in bulk.

70 comments

  1. the Queen's subjects by turkeydance · · Score: 1

    don't need to know.

    1. Re:the Queen's subjects by starless · · Score: 1

      don't need to know.

      But British citizens do.
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

    2. Re:the Queen's subjects by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I think you confused about what subject actually means. It means the crown and government serve subject to the approval of the people. If the people aren't happy they have a history of dealing with the holder of the crown in a way they aren't generally too happy about!

    3. Re:the Queen's subjects by 110010001000 · · Score: 0

      Oh right. Keep telling yourself that. It is the QUEEN'S subjects. Not the other way around. Common folk are so stupid.

    4. Re:the Queen's subjects by starless · · Score: 4, Informative

      There's no such thing as a British citizen. The correct term is SUBJECT.

      Nonsense.
      I'm a British citizen, not a subject.
      If you don't believe me, take a look at my passport and see what it says there.

    5. Re:the Queen's subjects by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In UK U can't have a machine gun, but U can have a knife.

    6. Re:the Queen's subjects by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And apparently no one outside of it has to know how to spell 'you' correctly.

    7. Re:the Queen's subjects by FatdogHaiku · · Score: 1

      There's no such thing as a British citizen. The correct term is SUBJECT.

      That's actually a time saver. Normally in surveillance the term "SUBJECT" is used to denote the person being observed...
      and the way it is now, everyone really is a "SUBJECT".
      Of course, once they have some dirt on you then you get upgraded "SUSPECT".

      --
      You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office
    8. Re:the Queen's subjects by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      All Britains are subjects. There's no such thing as a British citizen. All brits do whatever the queen tells them to do.

    9. Re:the Queen's subjects by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 2

      The Queen'd tell you to learn English, for a start.

      --
      systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
    10. Re:the Queen's subjects by FatdogHaiku · · Score: 1
      --
      You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office
    11. Re:the Queen's subjects by bobbied · · Score: 1

      Oh really? Come on.. I'm a US citizen and I KNOW that's not true and hasn't been true for about 200 or so years.

      Remember the US Revolutionary war was not fought in a vacuum, that the British where engaged in multiple conflicts before, during and after this war that drastically reduced the legal influence and standing of the monarchs. They are no longer absolute rulers, but more akin to figure heads, representatives of the state at official functions with very little actual legal control given parliament must really be involved in most things now.

      Actually, this move away from the absolute ruler had been well underway long before the colonies on this side of the pond started to revolt, with most such arrangements being similar to what we see today, with parliaments having the real power and the monarchs having more of an advise and consent figure head role. However, it wasn't until around the 1700's that parliaments where filled with elected members over appointed ones and where the monarch lost the privilege of deciding when a parliament sat and who was on it.

      --
      "File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
    12. Re:the Queen's subjects by cyberchondriac · · Score: 1

      Stop oppressing me with your white male privilege.
      http://www.dailywire.com/news/...

      /sarcasm

      --

      Look back up at my post, now look back down, you're on the Internet. Now look back up. I'm a signature.
    13. Re:the Queen's subjects by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      We are British citizens, but also subjects of the Queen. Personally I'd guillotine the lot of them.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    14. Re:the Queen's subjects by starless · · Score: 1

      https://www.gov.uk/types-of-br...

      There are 6 different types of British nationality. These are:

              British citizenship
              British overseas territories citizen
              British overseas citizen
              British subject
              British national (overseas)
              British protected person

      https://www.gov.uk/types-of-br...

      Until 1949, nearly everyone with a close connection to the United Kingdom was called a ‘British subject’.

      All citizens of Commonwealth countries were British subjects until January 1983.

      Since 1983, very few people have qualified as British subjects.
      Who is a British subject

      You became a British subject on 1 January 1983 if, until then, you were either:

              a British subject without citizenship, which means you were a British subject on 31 December 1948 who didn’t become a citizen of the UK and Colonies, a Commonwealth country, Pakistan or the Republic of Ireland
              a person who had been a citizen of the Republic of Ireland on 31 December 1948 and had made a claim to remain a British subject

      You also became a British subject on 1 January 1983 if you were a woman who registered as a British subject on the basis of your marriage to a man in one of these categories.

    15. Re:the Queen's subjects by starless · · Score: 2

      And also;
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

      On 1 January 1983, upon the coming into force of the British Nationality Act 1981, every citizen of the United Kingdom and colonies became either a British citizen, British Dependent Territories citizen or British Overseas citizen.

      Use of the term British subject was discontinued for all persons who fell into these categories, or who had a national citizenship of any other Commonwealth country. /quote.

    16. Re:the Queen's subjects by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You Toffs are so dumb...remember what happened the last time the crown declared itself to be above the people? And what happened in France?

    17. Re: the Queen's subjects by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      SUSPECT is just tv jargon. Everyone knows that a SUPJECT comes above SUBJECT. Duh.

    18. Re: the Queen's subjects by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Exactly why governments all over the world are stockpiling weapons, removing rights and freedoms of their peoples in the name of security and increasingly monitoring their folk in a time increasing inequality.

      It's ok. The plan in the next war is to significantly reduce the population of the world to combat climate change. Lol

    19. Re:the Queen's subjects by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You left out

            Lord British

    20. Re: the Queen's subjects by Zoxed · · Score: 1

      I think your confusing labels with content (eg I can put a sticker "clean diesel" on a car, but that doesn't suddenly make it clean!)

    21. Re:the Queen's subjects by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You are a subject of the crown. Half your legislative body hold seats by birthright (like a divine right) rather than election.
      You have no freedom of speech and can be criminally charged for it.
      Dress it up all you want, but deep down you know the truth as do we.

  2. As SIr Humphrey Would Say... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
  3. Somebody go notify V. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Better go set up the dominos...

    1. Re:Somebody go notify V. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Better go set up the dominos...

      Domino are now on a watch list :(

  4. oi m8 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    a chav nicked me data!

  5. Good folk? by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

    What about the bad folk? Is Santa Claus putting them on his naughty list instead?

    1. Re:Good folk? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The bad folk have a Right To Be Forgotten, so they can't keep databases on them.

  6. This again? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
  7. worry not by nimbius · · Score: 4, Funny

    Speaking as a representative from the Home Office, I can assure you as citizenry there is nothing to be alarmed about. We've compiled this database to detect certain abberant behavior in britons that may indicate nefarious intent similar to a terrorist. Among these behaviors:
    1. Milk applied before the tea, such as to scald it
    2. too much milk in the tea, such as to coddle the weak gullet of a terrorist.
    3. Milk and lemon in the tea, a sure sign of a deviant madman hellbent on the destruction of our great nation
    4. Enjoying, or not, marmite. we havent decided ourselves (janice in signals detection says it works on pizza too?)
    5. Questioning, mentioning, or affording any opinion on the Faulkand Islands. You know who you are violet ortiz born 6/3/1970 and wed to mister lonnie harvey of 2592 dane st who also happens to have a half eaten bottle of vegemite from holiday last year in Perth. We keep those sheep very well fed thank you kindly now back to your Reddit and dont leave that crisp wrapper on the train like last time, you caused an awful lot of anxiety for that polish maid sitting behind you.

    --
    Good people go to bed earlier.
    1. Re:worry not by Coisiche · · Score: 1

      5. Questioning, mentioning, or affording any opinion on the Faulkand Islands.

      So you're looking for bad spellers? I'm pretty sure that anyone with any sort if opinion on the Falkland Islands also knows how to correctly spell the name.

    2. Re:worry not by Anubis+IV · · Score: 1

      I take it Douglas Adams was under your watchful eye, then, given his subversive tendencies to educate people that you have basic facts backwards in your first point (the milk-first approach is done so as to avoid the scalding you get with the milk-second approach, though George Orwell made a separate case for your preferred approach) and his advocacy for using both lemon and milk if one should so desire?

    3. Re:worry not by The-Ixian · · Score: 1

      6. Not cooking all of your food by boiling

      --
      My eyes reflect the stars and a smile lights up my face.
    4. Re: worry not by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nimbus must be an undercover agent working for the Argentinians. Better add a note in the database. Misspelling Falklands only serves to sow confusion and doubt. Better check up on what newspapers and cornflakes Nimbus buys and add that as well.

    5. Re:worry not by Pax681 · · Score: 1

      4. Enjoying, or not, marmite. we havent decided ourselves (janice in signals detection says it works on pizza too?)

      Sorry Janice works in accounts and she don't give a fuck!

  8. The UK, Providing Dystopian Visions Everywhere by theshowmecanuck · · Score: 1

    The UK, providing inspiration to authors like George Orwell and Aldous Huxley, et al. A country driving dreams of dystopia everywhere. Even the USA eyes the UK with police state envy with respect to the scope of domestic surveillance of its citizenry. Does anyone know what temperature paper burns at?

    --
    -- I ignore anonymous replies to my comments and postings.
    1. Re:The UK, Providing Dystopian Visions Everywhere by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The UK, providing inspiration to authors like George Orwell and Aldous Huxley, et al. A country driving dreams of dystopia everywhere. Even the USA eyes the UK with police state envy with respect to the scope of domestic surveillance of its citizenry. Does anyone know what temperature paper burns at?

      That constitution keeps getting in our way and slowing us down! Damn those founding fathers!

    2. Re:The UK, Providing Dystopian Visions Everywhere by fustakrakich · · Score: 2

      Does anyone know what temperature paper burns at?

      911 degrees Fahrenheit

      --
      “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
    3. Re:The UK, Providing Dystopian Visions Everywhere by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wrong unit. Roughly 911 degrees Rankine.

    4. Re:The UK, Providing Dystopian Visions Everywhere by pr0nbot · · Score: 2

      I wonder if this is one of the costs of imperialism/multiculturalism. You import all manner of grievances, festering in segregated communities with which you have no informal ties through which you might do information gathering. All of a sudden, rather than dealing with the customary crimes you're dealing with invisible, existential threats from within your borders. You don't know how to build intelligence networks in the ghettos -- you don't know their customs, their tongues, their codes, and so whom you can trust -- and so instead you begin to watch everyone.

      I could imagine that in monocultures, problems are identified much sooner and dealt with more subtly. Those with a history of repression will of course have their political police, but does Iceland (say) have a paranoid secret service?

    5. Re:The UK, Providing Dystopian Visions Everywhere by dave420 · · Score: 1

      No. Your strange fantasies about "ghettos" have no bearing on the matter at all. Intelligence gathering the old fashioned way is becoming more and more rare because it's expensive and difficult to perform. It yields the best intelligence by far - like, actual real, useful intelligence, but it appears we've settled for less useful intelligence at a greater cost to society, but with a smaller budget for the departments footing the bill. Yay us?

  9. THIS IS JUST WRONG! by Thud457 · · Score: 3, Informative

    WTF UKGOV?!!!

    YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO SPY ON YOUR CITIZENS!

    The way it is SUPPOSED to work is that all five eyes countries spy on each others' citizens, then share their data with each other.
    So this should be America spying on UK citizens.
    Or Australia.
    Or New Zealand.
    Or sorry, Canada.

    --

    the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

    1. Re:THIS IS JUST WRONG! by AmiMoJo · · Score: 2

      This data isn't gathered through spying, it's stuff that citizens have to give the government like tax information, voter registration, employment data, car ownership data...

      It's just standard abuse of databases, with zero regard for privacy or safety. Just wait until it gets hacked.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    2. Re:THIS IS JUST WRONG! by PmanAce · · Score: 1

      Commonwealth baby!

      --
      Tired of my customary (Score:1)
  10. Isn't the the plot of Spectre? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    That last Bond film?

    1. Re:Isn't the the plot of Spectre? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, it's the plot of Mission:Impossible Rogue Nation

  11. Orwell's own country. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    God snoop the Queen.

  12. Shocked. I'M SHOCKED... by Frosty+Piss · · Score: 1

    So, they ALREADY collect, have, keep, access this data, it's just that they have decided to use modern methods to better access it?

    In other words, this is not a new problem, it's been going on for many years, they are just upgrading their IT?

    I'm shocked. SHOCKED I TELL YOU!, this from a government that has CCTV and license plate readers on every single street corner everywhere in their country, and have for many years.

    --
    If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
    1. Re: Shocked. I'M SHOCKED... by cyber-vandal · · Score: 1

      Alex Jones is that you?

  13. Sauron by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,
    Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,
    Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die,
    One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne
    In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.
    One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,
    One Ring to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them,
    In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.

    The rings here are metaphorical, but very real nonetheless.

  14. I'm surprised.... by ogdenk · · Score: 0

    I'm surprised they don't already have something like this in place honestly.

    Can't the NSA already do something similar over here in the US or is it much more disorganized? Either way, the future is getting pretty scary to think about. I hate to think about what my kids are going to have to put up with in their 30's if tech continues to advance at the current pace. 1984 wasn't supposed to be an operations manual. It was supposed to be a warning.

    1. Re: I'm surprised.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You know what British bureaucracy is like. Each department likes to have their own database system so that they don't end up being merged with other departments. Then there is the chance for the top dogs to get to move to the private sector and/or work as consultants.

  15. Initially Misread as "Manga" Database by Diss+Champ · · Score: 3, Funny

    The story would have been a lot more interesting.

  16. Population Register by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The next step is to derive statistics, sell filtered sections to commercial and non-commercial entities, organize healthcare services and research and rationalize the nonsense that is the unregistered population hiding in sewers, warehouses and caravan trailers. Welcome to the world of 1960s, Britain!

  17. DON'T PANIC by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The UK will soon be exiting the EU Human Rights Directives and replacing it with their own version of a "National Constitution" (laugh), this coming from the country that give us Magna Carta, they are one of the BIGGEST Human Rights violators in the western and European world.

    Britain invented trains,,, can't run them for shit.
    Broke the sound barrier... airports are chaos.
    Give us Magna Carta.... Biggest violator of human rights in the western world and EU.

    I sense a pattern.

    What they need is another Guy Fauks.

    1. Re:DON'T PANIC by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Don't forget the UK has PRISM that is used for monitoring Politicians :)

      The era of monarchism is over.

      The republic was the only chance of power to the people, for the people, by the people, and that was corrupted.

      Humanity has no future at this rate.

  18. It will never happen by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It will never happen as the UK government always awards IT contract to the same crappy IT firms who always fail and overspend.

    1. Re:It will never happen by PPH · · Score: 1

      Son of NHS.

      --
      Have gnu, will travel.
  19. Crazy culture by thinkwaitfast · · Score: 2

    Didn't talk of secret government databases on people used to be reserved for people who talked to themselves on buses? Interesting to see this going mainstream.

  20. HAHA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Looks like the left shoe and the right shoe are the same.

  21. Second Amendment is the reason the US gov obeys by erapert · · Score: 0

    Personally I'd guillotine the lot of them.

    How are you going to do that when apparently you can't even buy a butter knife without ID?

    1. Re:Second Amendment is the reason the US gov obeys by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      That's not even the UK. You can tell by the fact that the prices are not in Pounds.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    2. Re:Second Amendment is the reason the US gov obeys by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ... buy a butter knife without ID.

      That's Australia, the country that banned everyone except police, from having guns. They'll be scared of a pointy stick, next. The murder rate hasn't gone down, although the absence of guns means massacres are confined to a large family.

      ... I'd guillotine the lot of them.

      Australia's push for a republic in 1996 was more about castrating the office of the Governor-General, than about making the government independent of the Queen. Also, the leader of that 'push' is now the Prime Minister of Australia.

  22. Re: Second Amendment is the reason the US gov obey by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    We did not ban everyone from having guns at all. We simply made it more difficult for people to have them, "protection" is not a good enough reason as instead we prefer not to need protection by aiming for a less violent society in general.

    I personally own 2 firearms, they're kept under lock and key on the farm, as there's legitimate use for them and I have no precluding issues (mental health, past history of violence etc) to ownership.

  23. Re: Second Amendment is the reason the US gov obe by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Furthermore, we restricted the types of weapons to only those that fulfill reasonable purposes. We don't live in a war zone, we don't need ridiculous high powered high rate weapons for legitimate uses of guns.

  24. That's why they should abolish monarchy. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    See, the head of the British government, the crown, functionally owns all its subjects, and that's why they should abolish monarchy and the parliamentary model, in favor of a republican form like ours.

    That shit would NEVER happen in a fairly, democraticly elected system of government like OURS!

    Our government NEVER spies on us... Oh, hi, Ed! What's that you say? They did WHAT?!?

    I don't believe it!