State to control all e-mail, phonew and internet use " to comply with an EU directive "

Here is - for once - an admission by government that they are merely  
obeying orders from Brussels and an example of how we no longer rule  
ourselves.  Normally, while taking orders, government tries to  
maintain the fiction that it is their policy.  Here the mask has  
dropped for a second.  It's all " to comply with an EU directive "

This proposal is totally illiberal and authoritarian but as usual it  
comes unheralded out of the blue.

Back here we  are - rightly - concerned about the dreadful mess our  
government has made of our country. But meanwhile  our enemies in  
Brussels never sleep and here’s an example!

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BBC ONLINE                     26.4.09
Giant database plan to be set out

Plans to track all e-mails sent, all phone calls made and all  
internet pages visited in the UK are to be unveiled by Home Secretary  
Jacqui Smith.

Ministers say the move is needed so police and the security services  
can investigate crime and terrorism.

The Interception Modernisation Programme may include a giant database  
to store billions of details.

Shadow home secretary Chris Grayling said:"We must not allow  
ourselves to become a Big Brother society."

The consultation about the programme, which is to track details of  
when and where electronic communications are made but not their  
content, has already been delayed.

Take control
Ministers say it is merely intended to update powers which already  
exist for ordinary phone calls to cover data and information online -  
such as internet-based phone calls.

Details of the times, dates, duration and locations of mobile phone  
calls, numbers called, websites visited and addresses e-mailed are  
already stored by telecommunications companies for 12 months under a  
voluntary agreement.

++++++++++++++++++++
It is a hallmark of free societies that whilst the police target  
criminal suspects, government does not monitor the entire population
    Shami Chakrabarti,  Liberty
++++++++++++++++++++

The data can be accessed by police on request but the government said  
it planned to take control of the process in order to comply with an  
EU directive and make it easier for investigators to do their job.

Information would be kept for two years by law and may be held  
centrally on a searchable database.

When the idea of the database emerged last year the Liberal Democrats  
called the idea of a giant database "Orwellian".

Shami Chakrabarti, director of civil rights group Liberty, said: "It  
is a hallmark of free societies that whilst the police target  
criminal suspects, government does not monitor the entire population."

Former Director of Public Prosecutions Sir Ken Macdonald said: "This  
database would be an unimaginable hell house of personal private  
information. It would be a complete read-out of every citizen's life  
in the most intimate and demeaning detail.