State to 'spy' on every phone call, email and web search

[Iormlund]

They've been doing that for years over here. 
With one (important) difference: you need a judge to authorize release of said data.

[Zanza]

Britain has very little privacy protection apparently. They have all those CCTV cams and now this. They were ranked by Privacy International as having about the same privacy protection as Russia or China. Pretty sad for what used to be a liberal bastion.

There is an EU directive that is mandating this kind of data retention on communications. Thankfully, the German Constitutional Court has suspended it in Germany and has decreed that this kind of data may only used to investigate very serious crimes and only with the authorization of a judge.

[DGuller]

Britain has very little privacy protection apparently. They have all those CCTV cams and now this. They were ranked by Privacy International as having about the same privacy protection as Russia or China. Pretty sad for what used to be a liberal bastion.

There is an EU directive that is mandating this kind of data retention on communications. Thankfully, the German Constitutional Court has suspended it in Germany and has decreed that this kind of data may only used to investigate very serious crimes and only with the authorization of a judge.

Seriously, all the news coming out of Britain in the last five or so years regarding privacy sound very apalling.  It's like they've renounced the concept of privacy altogether, which is very surreal for an advanced and established democracy.

[Eddie Teach]

Well, 1984 was supposedly written about Britain, so not that surprising.

[Camerus]

I get the impression that the overwhelming majority of British people are opposed to these new invasions of privacy.  Which raises the questions:  (a) who is actually in support of these changes and (b) presumably concerned citizens of Britain have some recourse to oppose such measures...?