Truemors
- New Labour finally shows its true colour as the Red Brigade tightens its grip on freedom of expression. Learn how to protect yourself from the Police State....
Plans for a massive database snooping on the entire population of Soviet Britain have been condemned as a ‘step too far for the British way of life’. In the latest Orwellian move, the "unfit for purpose" Home Office is proposing to intercept every phone call, e-mail, text message, internet search and online purchase in the fight against terrorism and other serious crime but in reality amounts to a clinically paranoid invasion of privacy on a colossal scale.
And the privacy watchdog, whose bark is worse than his bite, Information Commissioner Richard Thomas, warned that the public’s traditional freedoms were under grave threat from creeping state surveillance. Apart from the New Labour regime's inability to hold data securely, he said the proposals raised ‘grave questions’ and "Do the risks we face provide justification for such a scheme in the first place? Do we want the state to have details of more and more aspects of our private lives? Whatever the benefits, would such a scheme amount to excessive surveillance? Would this be a step too far for the British way of life?"
It is thought the scheme would allow the police or MI5 to access the exact time when a phone call was made, the number dialled, the length of the call and, in the case of mobile phones, the location of the handset to within an accuracy of a few hundred yards. The way to circumvent this State terrorism is to remove the handset's battery without first powering off the phone. By following this procedure, the handset does not follow the traditional goodbye procedure and give away the last fixed location of the mobile phone.
The regime also wants similarly interception for all emails and the data would provide details of when they were sent and who the recipients were. Police recovering a suspect’s computer would then be able to trawl through hard-drive records and recover particular messages. The content of telephone calls could not be recovered unless they were being intercepted at the time. To protect email privacy, use PGP encryption and IP address changer software to prevent the location from the which the email was sent being known to the Police State.
Mr Thomas’ warnings were backed by privacy campaigners, who claimed such Big Brother powers would give untrustworthy Government agencies unprecedented abilities to trawl through intimate details of ordinary people’s private lives at will and to fuel the massive invasion of privacy, taxpayers will have to fork out billions more to the 'people' who invade their privacy. Campaigners including News Alliance have condemned the latest privacy invasion scheme as "sheer lunacy".
The Information Commissioner used the launch of his annual report to speak out after NuLab ministers signalled their draconian intentions in their programme of legislation earlier this year, describing the new Bill as ‘modifying procedures for acquiring communications data’ - a euphemism for introducing the total surveillance Police State.
There are fears that the data will be shared with foreign governments – typically, the Americans demanding personal details of all air passengers – accessed by internet hackers or lost by bungling civil servants of which there are a great many.
Embattled opponents pointed out that town halls are already using extraordinary surveillance powers under the controversial Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act to investigate minor issues such as littering, or checking whether parents are abusing school catchment area rules, and they could be given access to almost unthinkable levels of personal data under the new scheme.
Currently police and MI5 can access customer records stored by telephone companies, but only with a warrant to examine individual accounts. Richard Thomas said: "I am absolutely clear that the targeted and duly-authorised interception of the communications of suspects can be invaluable in the fight against terrorism and other serious crime. But there needs to be the fullest public debate about the justification for, and implications of, a specially created database – potentially accessible to a wide range of law enforcement authorities – holding details of everyone’s telephone and internet communications. Do we really want the police, security services and other organs of the state to have access to more and more aspects of our private lives?"
Opposition MPs, including David Davis, said the Government’s dismal records on safeguarding private data – most notably the loss of the entire child benefit database holding millions of people’s financial details – showed it was incapable of safeguarding such a vast volume of information safely, and the scheme should be dropped immediately.
An estimated 3billion emails are sent in Britain every day and last year 57billion text messages were sent. Thousands more State spies, paid for by the long-suffering British taxpayer, would have to be employed to intercept and analyse the data.
The "unfit for purpose" Home Office 'unsurprisingly' defended the need to keep its surveillance powers up to date with changing internet technology, and said full details of the plans would be published this year as part of a new Communications Data Bill.
Officials said the internet was rapidly revolutionising communications and it was vital for surveillance powers to keep up with technology in order to fight serious crime and terrorism.
DNA DATABASE:
Britain's crime-fighting DNA database was the world’s first, in 1995, and is now the world’s largest. Originally samples were taken from those arrested but destroyed if they were not convicted. Today anyone who is arrested - even if innocent - has DNA taken without consent, even if it has nothing to do with the case. It is added to the database, and stays there forever. It is virtually impossible to have it removed. Unsurprisingly, new entries are being added at the rate of more than a million a year.
More than 5 per cent of the UK population - about three million people - are registered on one of the world's largest DNA data-bases. Anyone arrested can be sampled and permanently entered into the National DNA Database. Prosecution is not a condition for inclusion. About 140,000 people on it have not been charged or cautioned for an offence. Some 37 per cent of black males are on the register, and 9 per cent of white men.
NUMBER PLATE SURVEILLANCE:
Money-grabbing Police forces use hundreds of Automatic Number Plate Recognition cameras across the UK, some at fixed sites and some in cars. Computers are able to compare numbers with a national database of cars which may be stolen, or whose owners are wanted for questioning. Each check takes around four seconds. Since 2007, the Government has been developing a central database which also records the details every time a car passes an ANPR camera, anywhere in Britain.
CCTV UK:
A fifth of the world's CCTV cameras are in the UK, and the average person is caught on film 300 times a day. MI5 can access any CCTV network with the flick of a switch but still cannot prevent terrorist attacks as was evidenced on 7/7. Britain's four million cameras cover almost every town centre, and the numbers are growing. Each year, an estimated £300m is spent on CCTV. In the advent of CCTV, policing has become retroactive.
INTERCEPTION OF COMMUNICATIONS:
In 1997, there were 1,712 warrants allowing phone taps. In 2003, there were 4,827, about two and a half times the total when Labour came to power. The increase is more stark given that the rules have changed so warrants are issued against individuals, not communication providers, such as BT. Investigators used to need separate warrants. Now the Home Secretary has only to sign just one to intercept all communications.
SPY SATELLITES:
Trials have started in Yorkshire of "tag-and-beacon" road pricing technology. Similar trials are to be held in London soon, possibly to replace the system for the congestion charge. But the real surveillance advance will come with satellite road pricing. Fitting tracking devices in cars to replace road tax with variable charges will also help the security services pinpoint details of every road journey made in Britain.
ID CARDS:
ID cards are scheduled to come into use in 2008, subject to parliamentary approval. More than 50 pieces of information relating to the holder, including biometric information (iris patterns, fingerprints), will be on the cards. The Government says they will be invaluable in the fight against terrorism, organised crime and benefit fraud. Checks against a compulsory identity register are to be offered to private firms.
SPIES.com:
The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 gave police and security services powers to monitor websites and intercept emails. The legislation provides for heavy penalties for failing to surrender passwords or encryption keys. Internet service providers are responsible for the installation of remote-controlled black boxes that relay all data passing through their computers to MI5.
TRAFFIC TAGGING:
Details of every car number plate, including date, time and location, are to be stored for at least two years, whether the owner has committed an offence or not. A control centre, which opens in April, can process and track 50 million plates a day. Plans are in place to enable 100 million a day, with records stored for five years. Commuters using London's Oyster card are providing a detailed record of their movements each day.
WAVE MACHINES:
A millimetre wave machine, or "body scanner", is being tested on Heathrow Express commuters at Paddington. The scanner, a 7m-long steel box, creates a virtual image of people inside. An operator views this on a screen and can see any concealed objects. Critics say, aside from privacy, the health and safety aspects of such devices are unknown, because the technology is similar to that used on mobile phone masts.
JUVENILE TAGGING:
Details on England's 11 million children are to go on an electronic database along with information on their families. Teachers, social workers and others working with children can access it. Set-up costs are estimated at £224m, and annual running costs£41m. Critics say the index will capture information on almost every child, except those most likely to be at risk. Trials suggest even schools have several addresses for some children.
NHS DATABASE:
The NHS is compiling a database of medical history on all patients. Inclusion is not compulsory, but patients must actively opt out or it will be assumed they have opted in. The records would allow huge improvements in patient care, but the NHS is under pressure to allow the security services access to private medical data. It is believed MI5 have already asked to view the database.
PHONE & EMAIL:
Every UK internet service provider (ISP) has to monitor the websites we surf and relay the information to MI5 HQ under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000. The Secret State has the powers to snoop, usually without a warrant, on the email and internet activities of everyone in the UK. In what way does this total surveillance protect us?
OYSTER CARDS:
The electronic card is used for travel around London and there are now plans to introduce it to all major cities including Birmingham, Manchester, Nottingham, Newcastle, Liverpool and Leeds. Users have to register their personal details before they can use the card, and the Oyster system then logs details of every journey you make, including the time and date you pass through stations.
It is already confirmed that people have used the information to discover if their partners have been cheating on them, thus fuelling the paranoid society in which no one trusts anyone else. Oyster Cards are read by radio waves, so you don't have to take them out of your pocket or bag. Experts with detailed knowledge can easily intercept the radio signals and find out your personal information and carry out multiple identity thefts.
TRACKING DEVICES:
The Surrey-designed Giove A Satellite blasted into orbit around the earth in December 2005, to form an integral part of the Galileo European navigation system. The 'project's' backers say it will revolutionise our lives. Plans are afoot to put Galileo chips into mobile phones. The objective, ostensibly, is to allow NHS staff to locate a caller in distress but this is nothing more than a smokescreen to hide its real intention.
With Galileo tracking chips in our mobile phones, the State will be able to track everyone's activities and movements. The age of total surveillance is upon us and it puts to shame Orwell's vision of a Police State in 1984. Information Commissioner Richard Thomas admits that Britain is the most spied upon nation in the world. He said: "We're waking up in a surveillance society."
NATIONAL IDENTITY REGISTER:
The New Labour government with a succession of former Home Secretaries who claim to be 'former' Communists, has concocted a scheme likely to cost the taxpayer £40 billion, just to be spied on. The National Identity Register (NIR) will share all databases including the electoral role, NHS records, DVLA records, DWP benefits, and the ID cards register. People who refuse to register on the NIR will be fined £2,500. And the Sovietist Government continues to maintain the myth that we live in a 'democracy'.
NATIONAL CARE RECORDS SYSTEM:
This colossal waste of taxpayer's hard earned money has already cost £12 billion and the projected cost on implementation in 2008 is £20 billion. The NCRS will contain all of medical records and for the first time chemists will be able to access our medical records. For instance a patient in Southampton can have his/her medical records viewed in a chemist or doctor in Dundee or Belfast.
Comments (0)