Rediculous
I can't believe your government actually believes it's feasible to warehouse every packet sent across the UK. Obviously, the costs WAY outweigh the benefits.
1. It's a HUGE invasion of privacy. As if the spooks being able to sift through this database weren't bad enough, could you imagine the repercussions if it fell into the hands of a criminal or, worse yet, a hostile intelligence agency? I can't believe there hasn't been a public shitstorm at mere suggestion of such a database.
2. It's technically infeasible. While I can't seem to find any statistics on how much data crosses the wire daily in the UK, I imagine its in the hundreds of petabytes at least. The cost of warehousing all that data would be utterly ridiculous and will only increase with time.
3. It'd be impossible to yield useful data from the database. Sure, you might catch a one or two "sympathizers" and the like who may not be motivated enough to take proper precautions, but for the most part I think the knowledge of this program would motivate true terrorists, supposing they even use the internet for planning, to use encryption, stenography, proxies, tor, etc.
4. It'll have a chilling effect on internet-based businesses in the UK. I know *I* sure as Hell will be more reluctant to use internet-based services in the UK with the knowledge that all my data are belong to the government.
5. Why is there this double-standard for electronic communication? Would UK citizens find it acceptable if all their face-to-face conversations were recorded and databased for the broader public "good?"
CCTV cameras, facial recognition, DNA databases, national ID cards, mass surveillance... Liberty is dead in the UK. RIP