CNET and the Telegraph report new anti-terror laws force Internet and Phone companies to provide your every phone call, text, email and private social network message to the government
The attack on online privacy is assaulting the public from every angle but the bottom line is the government’s unquenchable thirst to monitor your every thought and communication in real-time cannot be satisfied.
While the excuses run the entire spectrum of excuses from child porn to cybersecurity and hacking to copyright and anti-piracy control, all of those scapegoats have thus far fell short of convincing the public they need to sacrifice their civil liberties to give Big Brother the power to protect them.
Now lawmakers have resorted to the tried and true method of fooling the public into giving up their rights – Terrorism.
Yes, terrorism. The same excuse used to invade Afghanistan and Iraq, enact the patriot act and the NDAA, as well as give the United States the power to assassinate their own citizens and to indefinitely detain and torture anyone they wish based on the mere fabrication of allegations with no evidence to back up their claims.
That is the justification for new totalitarian digital communication monitoring laws that are expected to be announced this May.
Nevermind the fact that the definition of terrorism has been obscured to the point that simple acts like uploading a You Tube video, attending a protest, or even using the one of the long list of terror related words online can put you in the crosshairs of the governments cancerous multi-billion dollar secret illegal surveillance and domestic spy program.
As CNET and The Telegraph report, the new laws will require all digital communication providers to catalog and archive every phone call, text message, email and private social network message sent across their networks and provide them to the government for monitoring.
Your private messages revealed to government in new plans
Broadband providers and phone networks are to reveal to authorities your every phone call, text message, email and private social network message. New anti-terror laws could force phone networks and broadband providers to store our digital communications in databases open to security services to check up on us — and if that doesn’t worry you, just wait until the hackers get their hands on it.
The Communications Capabilities Development Plan sets out the new scheme, as suggested by MI5, MI6, and GCHQ. The government won’t store the data itself, instead requiring Internet service providers and phone networks such as BT, Sky, and O2 to store the information for a year.
Anti-terror police and spies could then see the information to see who you’ve been talking to. Actual phone calls and texts won’t be recorded but details of who called or texted who — and when and where — will be saved.
Your emails and private messages sent through Facebook and Twitter will be saved, as well as your internet browsing history or exchanges between online video gamers.
Privacy groups including the Open Rights Group have lambasted the new plans.
The Telegraph reports that the government has been holding talks with ISPs for the last two months, ahead of legislation this summer. New laws could be officially unveiled as soon as May.
Big Brother is watching
Source: Alexander Higgins
