Nasty, evil, Orwellian news in The Sunday Times:
Ministers are considering spending up to £12 billion on a database to monitor and store the internet browsing habits, e-mail and telephone records of everyone in Britain.
GCHQ, the government’s eavesdropping centre, has already been given up to £1 billion to finance the first stage of the project.
Hundreds of clandestine probes will be installed to monitor customers live on two of the country’s biggest internet and mobile phone providers – thought to be BT and Vodafone.
…
The Home Office stressed no formal decision had been taken but sources said officials had made clear that ministers had agreed “in principle” to the programme.
This is such a horrifyingly bad idea I don’t know where to begin.
The question, to quote Elliot Carver, is why? Why does the government think this will make the world a better and safer place? Don’t they understand that terrorism isn’t about killing people with bombs, it’s about spreading the fear of people being killed with bombs.
Fegh.
It is a bad idea, and deeply depressing. However, given our government’s track record of staggering ineptitude with technology, I expect the project will do what most others of its ilk end up doing – costing the taxpayer billions of pounds before being shelved indefinitely or launched into an environment where its already-obsolescent design parameters render it a white elephant and laughing stock at once. Talk about a silver lining, eh? 😉
Welcome to the club, he said from the United States of America.