Database Britain

This Labour government do seem to have a grasp of literary history, the introduction of their latest surveillance database comes on the 6th of April 2009. The novel 1984, which this Labour government seems to have taken as an instruction manual rather than a warning, starts on 4 April 1984: "It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen".


The end of the era of internet freedom came this morning as the EU and this Labour government's plan to monitor their citizens' every move takes another step closer to completion. From this morning all internet activity by every internet connection must be stored for one year by the ISP, this includes email traffic, visits to web sites and telephone calls made over the internet. Of course this information will be accessible by police and the security services so as to combat crime and terrorism. Of course in reality the information will be accessed by many public bodies and quangos, including local councils, who will thus be able investigate any number of minor misdemeanours or just look for evidence to embarrass difficult or undesirable persons.

The UK's Labour government who seem to have an insatiable desire to monitor and control every aspect of their citizens' lives was the prime mover for this EU-wide system of recording and it is to the UK's Home Office that we must turn for the justifications:

"It is the Government's priority to protect public safety and national security. That is why we are completing the implementation of this directive, which will bring the UK in line with our European counterparts."

"Without communications data, resolving crimes such as the Rhys Jones murder would be very difficult if not impossible."

And then the excuse that has more holes in it than a piece of Swiss cheese:

"Access to communications data is governed by Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act which ensures that effective safeguards are in place and that the data can only be accessed when it is necessary and proportionate to do so," he said. "

We all know how well the RIPA safeguards have worked to date, just look through the cases that I and other bloggers have reported and see councils using the Act to fight littering and to check whether parents are abusing school catchment area rules. Now councils and the government will have access to almost unthinkable levels of personal data without any real safeguards.


This database is not an isolated example of Labour implemented state surveillance, here's a few examples that I could think of, please feel free to add your own in the comments:
1. DNA Database - 3 million entries so far of anyone who is arrested, even if never charged let alone found guilty. The data stays on the database forever as it is virtually impossible to have it removed.

2. Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) systems record the movements of millions of vehicles every day and are in the process of being linked to a central database to record every movement you make in your vehicle.

3. Oyster Cards - If you register your Oyster Card, currently still optional, then every journey you take is recorded and stored.

4. Spy in the sky - The introduction of black box type equipment in every car is set for 2013, so every vehicle journey would be monitored foot by foot for speed limit infractions or in the future unauthorised journeys by carbon criminals

5. Every journey outside of the UK now has to be logged in advance along with personal data. How long before this is used to restrict foreign travel by "carbon criminals" or persons suspected of taking currency out of the Peoples State of the EU?

6. ID cards - "papers please"

7. NHS database - It is rumoured that MI5 already have access to the patients records stored on this database; who else might have access soon?

8. Galileo European tracking - the EU's rival to GPS is an unnecessary and expensive system unless the rumours that the Galileo chip will be placed in every new mobile are true. In which case if you own a mobile telephone your every movement will be tracked and recorded, and if you don't own a mobile telephone that will look suspicious.


Welcome to the sort of State surveillance that the Stasi could only have dreamt of. From today the State and its subsidiary vectors of control can monitor every web site you visit, every telephone call you make over the internet and every email you send or receive.

What of the future? I blogged some time ago about the state information televisions in public places ahead of the 2012 Olympics that are likely to become permanent fixtures. How long before CCTV cameras are plentiful enough that they are monitoring every street, to fight crime and terrorism, one every 100 metres... 50 metres... one per house...