Government data collection - it wouldn't be so bad if their Big Brother wasn't doubly incontinent!

If the current government does go for the 'hub' of the wheel of reform - Fair Voting (Proportional Representation) - there are some 20 or 30 spokes for that wheel - if we are to get a 21stC political system.  It's a re-balancing.

Nothing needs re-balaancing more that the set of traditional freedoms - including the freedom of privacy.

The Lib Dems are making the pace with their 'Freedom Bill' campaign;

 

The Government has announced it has scrapped plans to build a national database that would have held details of all internet browsing, emails, phone calls and social networking activity. Home Secretary Jacqui Smith admitted a central store of electronic data was an “extreme” solution and would have undermined privacy.

Instead, the Government has announced proposals to allow communications service providers to collect and retain details of every electronic communication made, costing the tax payer a staggering £2 billion over ten years. The proposals will extend beyond the remit of the recent European Directive to include activity on social networking sites and communication applications such as Skype, although they claim the content of messages will not be stored. The Information Commissioner Richard Thomas stressed:

“We should remember that communication records – Who? When? Where? – can be highly intrusive even if no content is collected. You can tell an awful lot about some people’s personal circumstances from the people they are talking to and the websites they visit.

“It is important that the proposals are tightly defined and minimise the level of intrusion, with appropriate safeguards in place.”

There are so many issues - it is such a complex problem.  Not just security but are we any better off with so many large corporations holding so much data?

Perhaps the punitive side of protective law should focus on alowing other to read - since the genie is already out.

Whatever perfection is in the balance between the traditional freedoms as they were and as they ought to be in this terrorist age, the over-riding reason for getting a halt to further encroachments is the manifest incompetence of government bodies at holding such data safely.

Labour's Big Brother - or is it the Civil service - or both - is doubly incontinent!

Posted via web from sunwalking's posterous