No to Big Brother

The British government is planning a new communication law that would create a "super database" storing information on emails, telephone data and Internet traffic. The Independent is not convinced: "We might also ask why we need this new legislation, which is justified as a necessary counter-terrorism measure, when the present system seems to be working perfectly well. Police officers can already request information on suspects' phone calls and emails from network providers. And they generally get it. Why does the Government need to store all this information itself? The suspicion has to be that the answer is so that the police, or the intelligence services, can go on 'fishing expeditions', looking for suspicious patterns in our communications records. ... The bitter irony is that we have seen from history that when a state collects vast amounts of information on its citizens, it can actually make it harder for officials to keep an eye on the real threats to its survival. This, of course, is no consolation for the general public. Ineffectively authoritarian regimes are no less dangerous. ... But perhaps the most fundamental objection to this bill is more basic still. Like the fast-expanding DNA database, like the national ID card scheme, it threatens to treat us as a nation of suspects, rather than citizens. It must be resisted by all those who value our liberties."

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