Network management Toolkit

Story: Critics attack 'dangerous' gov't comms-snooping plan

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yet another way to put our personal information at risk

This government appears to be developing a key area of expertise, namely drawing up plans to put its citizens' personal data at risk.

I fully accept that there needs to be a mechanism for the security services (and them alone) to gain access to the content of individuals' communications, where they have a legitimate concern, in order to protect the security of the population. They obtain a warrant, use this to obtain the data, then analyse it. Note that this is to protect the security of the population - not to increase the revenue of the government.

However, the key here is that they have to go through a legal process to obtain the data, ensuring the power cannot be abused.

This new proposal (and let's hope it is a proposal, to be debated fully and openly) apparently will allow the government to collect all data we transmit over our internet connection - commercially sensitive emails, telephone calls, personal banking transactions, credit card details, login passwords, indeed a huge amount of sensitive data... and store it in one of the government's renowned secure centralised databases.

Since, and with good reason, few people trust the government to keep data secure, this idea of a centralised database is one of the main reasons why people dislike the ID cards scheme. Now they are doing it again with our internet traffic.

What is wrong with the traditional, and indeed existing, scheme of obtaining legal permission first, for a specific data collection operation, and then collecting the data? Why is this government obsessed with storing so much of our personal data centrally and consequently putting such data at risk of theft or misuse? There surely cannot be any legitimate benefit which offsets this.

In fact I would go as far as to suggest that the government's duty to protect its population from harm would be better fulfilled were they to do nothing, than implementing their various databases supposedly designed to protect us. The bigger threat to our personal security and freedom appears to be not criminals and terrorists, but the government themselves.

Is there nobody in government with the population's interests at heart?

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