The Newspaper Shop -- Wednesday edition

[TankGirl]

Originally posted by walktalker
Switch on for state snooping
From August net service providers in the UK will be obliged to carry out surveillance of some customers' web habits on behalf of the police. Controversial laws passed in 2000 oblige large communications companies to install technology that allows one in 10,000 of their customers to be watched. The information gathered about what people look at on the web, the content of e-mail messages and their phone conversations will be passed to the police or a government monitoring station. The demands have been criticised by experts who say the law conflicts with basic guarantees of privacy and that the government is not doing enough to help pay for the installation of the surveillance systems.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci...00/2124551.stm[/b]

"In theory, an interception capability would deliver all the data," said Mr Perry [from London Internet Exchange]. "It's the internet equivalent of a telephone tap."

The government is hoping that its work on automatic surveillance will become a European standard and be widely adopted.

It took 18 years longer than Orwell predicted but there you go, Brits. Say hi and be nice to the Big Brother.

- tg