We’re All Suspects
Apparently, Jacqui Smith’s supposed climb down on gathering all of our communications information wasn’t actually a climb down at all. What a surprise…
SPY chiefs are pressing ahead with secret plans to monitor all internet use and telephone calls in Britain despite an announcement by Jacqui Smith, the home secretary, of a ministerial climbdown over public surveillance.
I suppose we shouldn’t be too surprised. These people seem to think they are above democratic accountability and that they run the country. Maybe they already do…
GCHQ, the government’s eavesdropping centre, is developing classified technology to intercept and monitor all e-mails, website visits and social networking sessions in Britain. The agency will also be able to track telephone calls made over the internet, as well as all phone calls to land lines and mobiles.
The £1 billion snooping project — called Mastering the Internet (MTI) — will rely on thousands of “black box” probes being covertly inserted across online infrastructure.
So covertly, indeed, that it made the Sunday Times. I thought spying was supposed to be carried out in secret, so that no one knew what was going on. I’m missing something here:
The top-secret programme began to be implemented last year, but its existence has been inadvertently disclosed through a GCHQ job advertisement carried in the computer trade press.
Not only are these people rampant control freaks who fail to understand their rightful place as our servants, they are arrant incompetents to boot. And they propose collecting sensitive personal information on all of us? They honestly believe they have not only the moral authority, but the requisite level of competence to ensure that such information remains confidential and not subject to abuse? Seriously?
I am not guilty of any offences (that I know of, with so many new laws on the statue book, it can be difficult to tell), I am not planning any offences, nor have I any plans to blow myself up on a train station. So, therefore, my communications information; with whom, where and when, is none of GCHQ’s business and I will do everything in my power to keep it that way. Whatever tools are available to make their life more difficult and my information more secure, I will use – and I doubt that I will be the only one. I will do it for one simple reason; it is none of their business and I do not answer to them; they answer to me and I am displeased with their impertinence. Okay, that’s two reasons, you get one for free.
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