When you connect to the internet, do you expect to maintain some privacy while you’re surfing? Not for longer if the government has its way.
Disturbing plans for the state to intercept your emails and access your favourite websites without letting you know are about to become true, according to this article by Zoe Margolis on Comment Is Free.
A controversial new technology, named as Phorm, is to be rolled out by the UK’s largest internet service providers (ISPs) allowing them to track surfers’ history while they are logged on…. and if we knew anything about it, we would not be able to ‘opt out’. Given the government’s record on information technology (IT), it simply cannot be relied upon to work properly anyway.
Another disturbing element to this, Margolis argues, is what is in the forthcoming, but rarely discussed (in parliament anyway), Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill. When it becomes law, it will, for example, be an offence for any person to have any downloaded extreme pornographic or relevant images in their possession. If found gulity, they could face a heavy fine, or in some cases, imprisonment. The government would be able, without any reason, to demand that ISPs hand over information about our surfing habits.
This is yet another example of the state interfering in our private lives. While there has been a lot of recent publicity over the human rights abuses in China, we also need to start paying closer attention to the human rights abuses here in Britain…. carried out by the Labour government.