Amidst all the excitement of the Crewe and Nantwich by election, I’d like to draw people’s attention to something they may have missed this week. Ministers are to consider a national database which will record details of:
- Every phone call you make
- Every email you send
- Every website you visit
The plans are currently at an early stage, but may be included in a draft communications bill later this year. The reason given will be the ubiquitous ‘fight against terrorism’, which is now the justification for more and more erosion of our civil liberties. I am fully committed to the fight against terrorists: I value the freedoms that come with living in a democracy and terrorism is a threat to those freedoms. But moving closer and closer to the surveillance society is in itself an erosion of the very freedom we cherish. These plans would be a step too far. Telecommunications companies already cooperate fully with law enforcement agencies when it is necessary to investigate suspects. A statement from the Information Commission released this week says:
We are not aware of any justification for the state to hold every UK citizen’s phone and internet records. We have real doubts that such a measure can be justified, or is proportionate or desirable.
Defeating crime and terrorism is of the utmost importance, but we are not aware of any pressing need to justify the government itself holding this sort of data.
Quite apart from the appalling idea of a government invading individual privacy in this way, this administration has already shown it cannot be trusted with the security of sensitive data (as
recipients of Child Benefit will already attest to).
This government so often reminds me of the following wise adage (often erroneously attributed to Benjamin Franklin):
Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety
Steve Guy, Wycombe Liberal Democrats Parliamentary Spokesman
Steve, I agree with you, we are (have already?)walking into a surveillance society but I’m afraid the Lib Dems are bad as the other parties. For example, Lib Dem councils use CCTV to monitor and fine people just as Labour or Tory ones do for smallest of misdemeanours. And whilst I applaud your stance against ID Cards, the Lib Dems want a national road pricing scheme, this can only work via satelite tracking or ANPR roadside cameras, both of which means the state knowing where you are at all times, which I find abhorrent.