DO SOMETHING!
OK, I'm going to try and cash in all my long time poster karma (despite not posting that much recently) to kick off about this one, and try and convince you all to do something about the most Orwellian step a democratic country has ever made. I've put it in G&T because it's about the Government of the UK monitoring you through your Mobile Phone, your Internet Use, your Social Network use and
your use of Xbox Live and other gaming networks.
Short version:
The bill announced yesterday will mean that:
- The Government will record the times, dates, duration and locations of mobile phone calls and the numbers called (previously they had to go get those details when required off the company concerned). This means they will triangulate your location everytime you use your phone to contact a cell tower.
- The Government will record every website you visit and every address you email. Previously they had to go get those details when justified off the company concerned.
The Gov having a record of every site you've ever visited is ridiculously open to abuse, exploitation and blackmail - if I need to explain to you why, then you've not used the internet for more than about an hour. Also considering the amount of dataleaks we've had imagine if your viewing habits were made public.
- Will be kept for two years. To begin with remember.
- As currently planned it won't keep the content of your emails, texts or chats. (Obviously, once the database exists that is mearly baby steps away, and if they know the html address of where you are visiting the content your upload is easily obtained.)
- Security and intelligence agencies, and other public bodies, will be allowed access personal data using a wide range of internet sites, including social and gaming networks
Basically they want access to your facebook, that way they can know all your friends - so much so that a Whitehall security official source said
"People have many accounts and sign up as Mickey Mouse and no one knows who they are ... We have to do something."
Seems anonimity on the web shouldn't be allowed anymore.
Remember there is also a seperate database (coming online this january) to record 50,000,000 car number plates a day. Cameras will pinpoint the precise time and location of all vehicles on the road. Initially senior officers promised the data would be kept for two years. But after a Freedom of Information Act request the Home Office has admitted the data is now being kept for five years. This is not the actions of a free country.
So what can we do?
You can complain with WriteToThem in about 5 mins (I've nothing to do with that site obviously)
- Click this link to go to WriteToThem
- Enter your postcode. Don't worry mysociety.org who run the site are lovely, safe and non-evil.
- It will find your Councilors, MP, MEP and so on. Click on the name of your MP.
- Add your name and address (be truthful, fake addresses will get the email junked)
- Write your letter of complaint about todays announcement.
- Check the spelling and grammar, click preview and send.
- Confirm your address in your email account.
I've based this post on two posts I wrote on my Blog (it's in the sig). But I'm really not trying to shill. It's just fucking crazy. Ever phone call tracked. Every web session recorded. It's time to bloody kick up a fuss uk PA peeps.
Posts
Exactly darleysam, before when we've argued about stuff like this there was a line to be argued and you had a strong point. Even I thought that maybe I am over reaching on it.
But there is no argument for this bill. A UK that records my location every time I make a call, records who I ring and for how long, who records when I drive and where I drive too, who records every time I log on and makes a list of the sites I visit (oh 2 girls 1 cup again!) and for how long. Who records who I email and when. Who will have access to my friends on facebook and my friends on XBL. And keeps it all for at least 5 years.
Without having to even guess that I'm a terrorist?
Fucking hell.
2009 is a year of Updates - one every Monday. Hopefully. xx
If they were under attack by some spies and trying to figure out who it was I can sorta understand (still invasive) but this just seems... Stupid.
Surely you don't have a problem with all of these perfectly reasonable measures to keep you safe.
Unless, of course, you have something to hide.
Can trade TF2 items or whatever else you're interested in. PM me.
"another million views, he has to be their leader"
I do take slight opposition to the slippery-slope argument, it's something I'm never too happy to side with, but I think even the basics of what's being proposed here are enough to get outraged about. It just seems like a complete violation of any privacy you might have.
Ha ha,
But yeah, of course I've got something to hide. As do you.
Especially if you can complete this sentence: Two girls one...
2009 is a year of Updates - one every Monday. Hopefully. xx
Exactly, it doesn't matter what anyone's views on the other stuff is. This bill alone warrants the attention.
2009 is a year of Updates - one every Monday. Hopefully. xx
Guy?
I don't know how you roll, but that's how I get down. :winky:
Can trade TF2 items or whatever else you're interested in. PM me.
No, just no. Get the fuck out of my family's private life. Jesus, what the fuck is wrong with our government that they think this is even remotely acceptable?
Edit: Also, why is it that every home secretary we have seems to be more evil than the last? Here's a good law "If someone shows interest in the role of Home Secretary, burn them for they are surely a witch".
Seems like this is a huge extension on the Patriot Act, actually.
Good luck, Lave. If there's something us "butchers of the English language" can do to help, think of it and let us know.
https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197970666737/
This guy.
Like Id cards, the without charge arrests and most of the recent financial aid bills this is political posturing by a government on the ropes. It is no secret everyone hates Brown, all Cameron has to do is say 'we won't do this' and whammo the bill gets denied and he goes up in the polls by about 10 points.
Not that I have much faith in the commons or the lords but let's be reasonable here, what they are proposing is so extreme that even without outspoken support against it the thing would never get past a green paper let alone vetted by the Lords.
Every month there is a new bill being considered that we have to get motivated to oppose, and every time it gets shut down because the government keeps forgetting that we live in a democracy and we hate both them and their stupid laws vehemently. I mean its not like we live in America or something.
I can see the relevance here, checking on Xbox Live or Facebook or whatever. But unless the government knowing how much Halo I play is incriminating I'm really failing to see how absurd as it is for something this ridiculous to get in anyways, how it would be much of an issue anyways. It's not like my number isnt already publicly available, as is my email, my cellphone, my address. At work my browsing is monitored, as are land line calls. The amount of spam I get to my apartment and the cold call telemarketing indicates that my privacy went out the window a long time ago when I turned 18 and moved out.
I'm not saying we should be any less than diametrically opposed to such a bill, by its very nature it restricts freedoms and offers no benefit to the public, but I'm saying that this is just the bill of the week. Soup of the day. Remember when ID cards had a serious threat of getting passed? No? That's because there was no chance of them getting passed. Because not a single fucking person wanted one.
This is the real issue at hand here. What better time to bury bad news than the middle of a goddamn economic crash? It's 9/11 all over again, that infamous memo. The thing is that passing a bill like this requires far too much time and vetting for it to slip under the radar. The fact that on the same day it is announced we already have a forum thread up about the many ways we can actively oppose it should show just how massively unlikely it is for this to get anywhere near being state law, let alone remembered in 5 years time.
The media is going to jump on this in an instant and rip it apart. Trust me, I know.
Yeah, ask the guys at CryTek, they've got some fascinating stories!
Doesn't matter. Email him.
The more each party know that the public will back them up the more resistance their will be.
Email him telling him your a life long labour supporter who faced with this outrageous proposal will be forced to vote for the tories if they fight against this bill.
My MP is a Labour candidate, so I sent this:
Doesn't matter what you would actually vote (I vote Lib) it's about making the case as strongly as possible that this losing htem their voter base.
I've put a guide and example letters on my site. It's all public domain so feel free to mirror it and copy it and improve it and forward it.
We really need to spread the word as far as we can to complain about this.
2009 is a year of Updates - one every Monday. Hopefully. xx
What a cunt.
I don't believe it will get through Parliament, but it's pretty important this isn't allowed.
My MP is also Labour.
(would have helped your cause if unprecedented was correct )
I get you and agree to a point.
Regardless you are left with a few choices:
Do nothing and assume that other people will stop it passing.
OR
Spend ten minutes complaining and help stop it passing.
OR
Do more.
I can understand just spending ten minutes on it. But in the time you wrote that post you could have complained yourself.
If you do nothing and assuming someone else will stop it, sure the risk might be small, but:
1) It assumes the Lords understand the internet
and
2) The cost of being wrong is too high.
2009 is a year of Updates - one every Monday. Hopefully. xx
Please do! But best to change it a little. It's the one I put up on my site and if you send an exact copy it might bounce as being duplicate spam. Better than nothing though.
Bugger! thanks! I've been doing all this whilst during a really busy day.
If anyone can improve anything I've done - please do!
2009 is a year of Updates - one every Monday. Hopefully. xx
I largely agree with Scarab that it probably wont happen but I'd feel pretty retarded if it did and I hadn't done even the bare minimum to prevent it.
The ID cards had slim chance of success because the average geezer could easily grasp the idea that he'd have to pay for an ID card and thus wondered why the hell he should pay money for something he hasn't needed so far. Internet stalking isn't something we have to buy individually, it's just something the government can choose to start doing and most people won't notice it affecting them.
The ultimate irony being that he won a landslide vote last time and there is no way we will be a conservative seat for a long time. Still...
I just don't trust most people to understand the web.
2009 is a year of Updates - one every Monday. Hopefully. xx
Basically I have no chance of making any difference, but I've fired off a letter anyway.
My parents' MP is a proven racist. So yeah...
what a fucked up country we live in.
See you fools, Im off to live in Australia. YIPPE KAY AYY
Nigel Griffiths is basically identical (also Voted moderately for equal gay rights which I figure basically means he couldn't come right out and vote against it but he still hates the gays). I'll take the "I won't vote for you and I'll tell my children to hate Labour for the rest of their lives and lock my wife up so she can't vote on election day" approach I guess.
This is why I want to know if we should be pestering our MEPs as well? Will that help at all or just get me put on the terrorist watch list?
"The proposed Communications Bill put forward by the Home Secretary,
Jacqui Smith, is an affront to freedom of speech. In no free society
should one's every telephone call, e-mail, or web page browsed be
logged by the Government; and to claim it is necessary to prevent
terrorism is a frankly laughable excuse for such Orwellian tactics.
I implore you to do your utmost to prevent such a bill becoming law. I
am a strong believer in the freedoms which many Britons died to
protect, and see a Home Secretary attempting so blatantly to undermine
them sickens me to the core."
My MP's Oliver Letwin, who generally enjoys voting against Labour. I dislike the Tories, but Labour aren't doing much to endear me to them...
Don't know much about whats happening in Europe. It's best to be specifically against something. Hopefully Echo can give us some details to go on. I'll have a google when I get a chance.
Everyone who sent an email is awesome.
2009 is a year of Updates - one every Monday. Hopefully. xx
Thanks for bringing it to my attention.
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Gah, too late! Still, I'll remember that should I send further letters.
I don't think I'll ever vote Labour. Since turning 18 5 years ago they haven't done a thing to endear me to them. It's times like this I miss my old MP - Michael Jack
Voted strongly against introducing ID cards.
Voted moderately against Labour's anti-terrorism laws.