More powers for Big Brother?

[kemical]

Here in the UK the goverment plan to tighten laws so to be able to 'snoop' on anyone without having to obtain a warrant first. One of the founding fathers of the web had this to say....

[h=1]Web pioneer Sir Tim Berners-Lee slams Government's monitoring plans[/h]

Controversial government plans to allow intelligence agencies to
monitor the calls, emails, texts and website visits of every person in
the UK should be scrapped, the inventor of the world wide web has said.

Sir Tim Berners-Lee warned that the "dangerous" new laws would lead to a "destruction of human rights" if they were implemented in their current form.
The new legislation, expected in next month's Queen's Speech, will enable GCHQ to access information "on demand" in "real time" without a warrant.
But the British computer engineer, who advises the Government on how to make public data more accessible, said there has not been enough discussion on how the sensitive data could be safely stored.
In an interview with The Guardian Sir Tim said: "The idea that we should routinely record information about people is obviously very dangerous.
"It means that there will be information around which could be stolen, which can be acquired through corrupt officials or corrupt operators, and (could be) used, for example, to blackmail people in the Government or people in the military.
"We open ourselves out, if we store this information, to it being abused."
The internet pioneer added: "The amount of control you have over somebody if you can monitor internet activity is amazing.
"You get to know every detail, you get to know, in a way, more intimate details about their life than any person that they talk to because often people will confide in the internet as they find their way through medical websites....or as an adolescent finds their way through a website about homosexuality, wondering what they are and whether they should talk to people about it."
The Home Secretary Theresa May defended the proposals after they faced fierce criticism from backbench MPs and civil liberties groups.
She insisted that suspected terrorists, paedophiles and serious criminals would be targeted by intelligence officials rather than ordinary people.
Sir Tim said that if the government pushes ahead with the plans a "very strong independent body" would have to be set up to scrutinise the use of the powers.
PA
​

Personally I feel it makes the book '1984' seem niave......

Reference:

Web pioneer Sir Tim Berners-Lee slams Government's monitoring plans - UK Politics - UK - The Independent

 

[Mike]

George Orwell's 1984 was naive indeed, Ross. Here in the United States, it was recently brought to light on the Internet-based news networks, and not the television ones, it was revealed that the FBI is looking to obtain additional powers to obtain a backdoor into Facebook accounts, Skype, Twitter, and, likely, many more social networking websites. In fact, this effort follows in the wake of other failed attempts to regulate the free flow of information on the Internet. For instance, the Congress failed to pass SOPA and PIPA, which were laws being championed by the movie industry in Hollywood to protect their intellectual property. However, even after SOPA and PIPA were defeated, when several major sites, including Wikipedia and Reddit staged a "24 hour blackout", President Obama and European leaders signed into an international treaty, a law called ACTA. This law allows for unspecified enhanced cooperation between international law enforcement agencies over the Internet; potentially allowing them to spy on an Internet user's activities without their knowledge. In addition to this news, enforcement of the ACTA law seems to have gone into effect with the immediate arrest of Kim Dotcom from MegaUpload, right after PIPA and SOPA were defeated in the United States Congress.

In addition to the FBI's reported efforts to obtain information, it has come to light that yet another law is under consideration known as CISPA. This unprecedented attack on Internet freedom and privacy can not go unnoticed. It appears that the effort is not solely based in the United States, and is being coordinated by the international power brokers who hold sway throughout North America and Europe.

For more information on these unbelievable efforts to assault Internet freedoms, check out these links:

FBI: We need wiretap-ready Web sites - now - 4th of May 2012
Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act - Latest bill largely going unnoticed by the general public
PROTECT IP Act (PIPA) - largely defeated in US Congress due to pressure from commercial websites
STOP ONLINE PRIVACY ACT (SOPA) - defeated after large Internet blackout from major websites

It seems that the goal to control the news and powerful information circulating across the arteries of the Internet itself are constantly being assailed by the forces of government power. I would like to know in what other countries are these efforts being made? Certainly, we criticize the Chinese, the Middle Eastern nations, and all other states that attack human rights for censoring the Internet - but we are attempting to do the same. This is a true travesty and injustice in my opinion.

 

[patcooke]

Certainly, we criticize the Chinese, the Middle Eastern nations,

At least they are honest about what they are doing - the UK and the US are sneaky about it and when they get caught out they try to tell us it is all in our interest and for our benefit. At best a nanny state and worst a police state.