They're talking about putting a black box on all your network traffic as well.

Under Government plans to monitor internet traffic, raw data would be collected and stored by the black boxes before being transferred to a giant central database.
The vision was outlined at a meeting between officials from the Home Office and Internet Service Providers earlier this week.
It is further evidence of the Government's desire to have the capability to vet every telephone call, email and internet visit made in the UK, which has already provoked an outcry.
Richard Thomas, the Information Commissioner, has described it as a "step too far".
The proposal is expected to be put out to consultation as part of the new Communications Data Bill early next year.
At Monday's meeting in London representatives from BT, AOL Europe, O2 and BSkyB were given a presentation of the issues and the technology surrounding the Government's Interception Modernisation Programme (IMP), the name given by the Home Office to the database proposal.
They were told that the security and intelligence agencies wanted to use the stored data to help fight serious crime and terrorism.
Officials tried to reassure the industry by suggesting that many smaller ISPs would be unaffected by the "black boxes" as these would be installed upstream on the network and hinted that all costs would be met by the Government.
One delegate at the meeting told the Independent: "They said they only wanted to return to a position they were in before the emergence of internet communication, when they were able to monitor all correspondence with a police suspect. The difference here is they will be in a much better position to spy on many more people on the basis of their internet behaviour. Also there's a grey area between what is content and what is traffic. Is what is said in a chat room content or just traffic?"
Ministers have said plans for the database have not been confirmed, and that it is not their intention to introduce monitoring or storage equipment that will check or hold the content of emails or phonecalls on the traffic.
A Home Office spokesman said:
“We have not made any final decisions on how communications data will be collected and no decision will be made until after the consultation process.

“We do not recognise the term "Black Boxes”. It has not been used in any of our briefings or presentations”.

Well thank God they don't recognize that term, that must mean the idea's never once crossed their minds!


...Seriously though, do the majority of you think that this is really in the best interest of your nation, or is this a decision made by higher ups?

Meanwhile....
http://www.dailytech.com/Obama+Pushes+Ambitious+Tech+Agenda+Tops+on+List+Privacy+Fast+Net/article13374.htm

Good news, to be sure.

I thought USA did that already?

Its ok its in the name of freedom and the war on terror.  Just whatever you do dont say the word BOMB on a forum! We just get whatever was in the US a few years after.  Soon we'll have a black prime minister.

In related albeit belated news, you're not even allowed to insult someone and get away with it these days in the UK.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/organgrinder/2008/oct/29/jonathan-ross-russell-brand

Brand resigned and went off to a new well paid life in America and Ross took an extended Christmas break, to come back to his half a million a year job.  Everyone's happy then.

And then there was Clarkson too.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/tv-radio/sack-clarkson-call-over-lorry-driver-comments-996489.aspx

I thought USA did that already?

Yeah, we just got the white space freed up on Tuesday in a unanimous decision by the Federal Communications Commission.  We'll see what transpires with the other plans mentioned in the article. 

I thought USA did that already?

Our wiretapping isn't so unabashedly blatant, and most of the time, it's selective.

Eddie_the_Hated

I thought USA did that already?

Our wiretapping isn't so unabashedly blatant, and most of the time, it's selective.

Selective = good. I think we should know what radical groups and convicted pedo's are doing online. The problem, however, with the Patriot Act is that it does not define radical group or terrorist.

Everything we do is already monitored, don't be naive.

No, it's not.  Monitoring implies that there's some secret government city in the Mojave desert staffing warehouses full of techies attached to computers. The government requests certain information from telecoms, and nine times out of ten, they turn it over.

Don't be paranoid.

You don't know what you're talking about, I've worked for ISPs, Email, Usenet, etc. companies.  Live in your little fantasy world where you think you aren't tracked, I don't really care.

Doesn't even take the government to get information released, I've worked at software companies that have databases full of lists of people who they know are pirating their shit, I can only imagine what kind of info an organization with real power (government) posseses.  The only reason people get away with so much internet fraud is because there's too many people doing it and because of the role the internet plays economically, it would be devastating if they manage to frighten people away, it's not because they can't be caught, that's the easy part.

So... like I said, there are large databases of information being used for jack-shit, save domestic terrorism questioning, and the occasional sting on a 12 year old LimeWire user. Congrats on working for ISPs, Email, Usenet, etc. Did they give you one of those secret red government badges, and keep you from talking to people when they took you to Area 51? Were you blindfolded? Did you see bigfoot?



I'm not naive enough to think I couldn't be watched if the government had any reason to, but the simple fact is that they don't. I'm such an insignificant blip on their radar, it wouldn't be worth the time spent to locate information pertaining to me, no less do anything about it.

You're so busted for all those britney spears mp3s.

Eddie_the_Hated


Did you see bigfoot?

I've seen Bigfoot.

I've seen Bigfoot.

Ok no more jokes on Torr's mom.  We have to make a good impression for Brandon.

Torr's mother isn't Bigfoot... she's a fat giraffe...

Mmmmm....check out those hips!

Eddie_the_Hated

Did they give you one of those secret red government badges, and keep you from talking to people when they took you to Area 51? Were you blindfolded? Did you see bigfoot?

What does this even have to do with the argument?  You prove more immature everytime you post.

Everything you do is tracked, get over it.  Don't get mad at me I didn't make the system.

Check your feces for RFID tags. You think you're the only one who watches what you eat?

Again, I'll state that I could be watched, but I'm not. Nobody gives a shit about me, and that's just the way I like it. Don't make this out to be something it's not.

You're so busted for all those britney spears mp3s.

If by "mp3s" you mean heavily altered high-resolution album art....

No.  You are trying to act as if the british government is some kind of oppressor that spies on people on the internet when it's so rampant everywhere anyone is authorized to do it with immunity.

And I don't understand why you believe if it's not realtime on-the-fly monitoring then it doesn't qualify as monitoring.  No they dont care about monitoring your porn watching in realtime, why would they?  It's inneficient.  You're still monitored by virtue of lack of anonymity and the standardization of backups, there's someone getting payed or some product being licensed right now to back this thread/forum up which has your IP logged.