Big Brother is here
No, I’m not talking about the latest series of celeb bb, although I am embarrassingly addicted. I know its not the done thing but like some ghastly freak show I can’t avert my eyes. Damn those d-listers!
No, I’m referring to the news that the Home Office has announced that details of every email in the UK has to be kept on record by Internet Service Providers. The ISPs have to record who sent the email, to whom and when, and the data can be accessed by more than 600 public bodies, including the police, should they request to do so.
Civil liberty groups are predictably up-in-arms about it all but I suspect most people wouldn’t be that fussed. My emails are really not that interesting, so if some PC wants to read my inane ramblings about Tottenham Hotspur, English cricket and music then they can be my guest. I’m a gmail user, so I am used to my emails being trawled through anyway.
I think that civil liberty groups can sometimes get all het about things that they feel we should be het up about, when the reality is in fact, meh. And with Twitter’s recent move to the mainstream many people offer up incredible amounts of personal data every day without thinking of the consequences, so it is hard to stress too much about someone trawling through your emails.
What do you reckon - anyone outraged by this?
Tags: Celebrity Big Brother, civil liberty, email, ISPs
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Comments (2)
January 9th, 2009 at 1:46 pm Posted by Gary
Not outraged, just a weary sigh as another block of civil liberties is chipped off for no good reason.
I take your point about a large amount of personal data being offered up on Twitter (and probably more so on social networking sites and other places). But there’s a difference here. This is voluntary on our part. I have a choice as to whether I choose to disclose this information to all and sundry. If this scheme goes ahead, I don’t have a choice about what I share with the government. They go can ahead and read it anyway.
Ok, so this may also be staggeringly mundane. But that’s not the point. If I wanted to share this to the world - or for other people to read it - via my blog, Twitter, MySpace or whatever, that’s my choice. If I want it to remain private, it should remain private.
And even though there’s vast amounts of trawable, sharable data out there online, there’s still a vast proportion of people who don’t share info on these websites, or aren’t even signed up. And while there’s a valid discussion about the effectiveness of email as a form of communication, the majority of us still use it - moreso and more frequently, I’d wager, than social networks or social media.
There are methods in place to intercept communication, when needed, by law. If the government wants to sit down and discuss with email service providers about strengthening this, then fine. But holding onto the emails of every single person in the UK. Is that not just a tad disproportionate? (I’m not entirely sure about this, but I don’t think even China have that level of surveillance).
There’s also the danger that, should the government want to abuse this data, they can. That’s not saying they will (they’re probably more likely to lose it in a skip in Milton Keynes), or even that I think they’re going to. But once you have something in place like this, the temptation is there to misuse this.
The current government may have relatively benign and the best intentions. So may the next government. But if it’s there, so is the temptation to use it for purposes other than what it was intended for. We’ve already seen how local councils are using anti-terror laws to go after relatively minor offences such as overfilling bins or checking somebody lived in the catchment area for the right school. It’s not a leap of imagination to see the various ways they could go with this.
Having companies like Google trawl through data is another issue that perhaps deserves a discussion of its own. But it’s still a very different kettle of fish for Google to trawl your Gmail as opposed to the government.
There are some things that civil liberties groups do go OTT on. This, however, definitely isn’t one of them.
January 15th, 2009 at 8:08 am Posted by Steve Earl
Nah, not really. As you say, those who bleast most about intrusion tend to be those blasting their bra sizes all over social media sites.
The whingers need to wise up. Ever since communications technology first started being dished out to the average punter with the telegram and early phone, the Government has been able to monitor it. What do you think GCHQ does all day?
If you want privacy for a conversation, take the person out to a bar and keep it to a whisper.
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