The power to snoop

On its way to the USA

[Reprinted from Issues & Views August 6, 2001]

Writing in the magazine Freedom Today (published in London), John McLean tells about the "Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act," which was passed in England last year:

Under this Orwellian piece of legislation, government, police and security services are allowed to track and monitor everything you do on the Internet--the email addresses of the people you correspond with, the chat rooms you visit, what newsgroups you read, the web pages you log on to or download, the purchases you make and where and when you log on to a machine.

This "power to snoop" is all encompassing and can be used against any citizen no matter how innocent. The grounds for such snooping are listed as "national security, the prevention or detection of crime, public safety, public health, tax assessment and collection" and "for any reason the Secretary of State deems fit." In effect, any government department or police officer can demand the information they want by fitting their request into one of these criteria.

The whole aim of the Act is mass surveillance and surveillance has no object other than control of the individual. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be the end of the story but only the beginning. In December 2000, it was revealed that the police and security services were seeking the power to seize all records of telephone calls, emails and Internet connections made by every person in Britain. Their proposal is to log every telephone call and store the information for seven years at a vast Government-run data warehouse. They want to force every telephone company to retain all records of phone calls and Internet access for seven years or longer instead of for only a few days as at present.

And the reaction of the Home Office? It was giving "serious consideration" to the proposal. It is always the step-by-step process of taking away our liberties that is the most effective and we are now in danger of losing our age-old right to freedom of communication.

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