Network management Toolkit

Story: Privacy tsar: Gov't comms database 'a step too far'

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So many reasons

There are so many reasons why this is a bad idea, but I guess the killer punch is that it will not do what they obviously want it to do. This isn't "It physically won't work", which in point of fact it probably won't, in common with so many other HMG mega-databases. Once they have circumvented all the pitfalls of public private partnerships etc etc the general public will know, if interested, what kinds of communications are snooped and what kinds are free from observation. Anyone trying to arrange illicit activities will simply avoid those that are logged. CCTV cameras, it has been shown, simply move street crime to somewhere else, the same effect will be seen here.

This much seems obvious. The part the worries me about this is that it IS obvious. Why then is it being pushed through? Either our great and glorious leaders haven't thought of it, or they know full well that this is the case and aren't bothered because that's not what this scheme is actually intended to do.

The NIR has similar problems. All of the various "Undeniable Reasons" for the NIR have been roundly denied by relevant experts and in many cases by the ministers themselves. So what is it ACTUALLY for.

People need to understand that these schemes are not paid for with magic pounds that spring unbidden from the ground within the square mile. They are paid for with money that we pay in taxes and compete with other actual useful stuff like coppers on the street, nurses in the wards and pay rises for the poor sods at the bottom of the public sector pay scales. You don't have to prevent the squander of that many billions on these ill considered schemes before you could give a pretty decent pay rise to every bin man and care worker in the country without any effect on inflation.

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