Every email and web visit in the UK will be collected and stored by government-owned "black boxes" under the British Government's grand plans for a giant "big brother" database, The Independent newspaper reports. This is a latest step in a country where there is extensive monitoring via closed circuit television and other methods.
Plans to create a database holding information about every phone call, email and Internet visit made in the UK have provoked a huge public outcry. Nevertheless, government ministers have said they are committed to consulting on the new Communications Data Bill early in the new year.
The newspaper's information is based on discussions held between Home Office representatives and leading figures in the IT and telecommunications industries. Further details of the technical aspects of collecting the informationemerged on Monday at a meeting of Internet service providers (ISPs) in London where representatives from BT, AOL Europe, O2 and BSkyB were given a PowerPoint presentation of the issues and the technology surrounding the Government's Interception Modernisation Programme (IMP), the name given by the Home Office to the database proposal, the newspaper said.
What is not known is what the government will do with the information, who will have access to the information, and what privacy protections -- if any -- will be afforded.
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