Reply to post: Re: Can someone explain ...

UK gov rushes through emergency law on data retention

Anonymous Coward
Anonymous Coward

Re: Can someone explain ...

"Looking at ‘today’ … tomorrow will take care of itself, surely ?"

I can't deny that it looks better superficially. …The country is run by people who have been shown to be corrupt, self-serving, greedy and generally of low moral stock. … So, if you really think your vote counts, I'm afraid you're pretty delusional.

I can’t disagree with your description of the people that run the county. That said the pond scum category may not apply to all of them.

That said even total dictators eventually work out that treating everybody like serfs is just a bit too much like hard work … If you look back historically as society evolved even monarchs (who believed that they had a divine right to rule) did bow to the will of the populous.

"No I don’t mind them knowing that I went to see my mistress… and it is entirely possible that she could have just been a female friend."

You will do when someone decides to use that information against you!! Give me £10k, or we tell your wife. Do this or we tell your wife etc.etc. … officially and unofficially sanctioned.

I would have laughed. You want 10K to tell my wife that I make occasional texts, calls and emails to a female friend of mine. My wife knows I have known this female friend for years why shouldn’t I contact her?

It is important to bear in mind that this is communications metadata not the contents.

"A ‘dragnet’ implemented on communications traffic data. ….. It just doesn’t seem to worry me like it does you."

On the basis of some other suspicion can easily … energy bill again as OFGEM (oversight and control) must be doing a splendid job!! Ditto for almost every other area.

I don’t think it is valid to conflate the oversight of the scum bag thieving energy energy companies, and the security services. As an aside if you look at the list of prosecutions on the Wikipedia entry for RIPA they deal mostly with unlawful interception.

"Indeed. Yet the mass populous complain .. respect the will of the masses."

A commonly held misconception. …. Take the murder of Lee Rigby. The people involved were already known.

The main set of information reported as missing around 911 and 7/7 by the security services was the communications traffic from the internet. Much of RIPA or indeed the PATRIOT act seems to be intelligence services increasing the capability onto the internet very much in line with other telecommunications.

Just as you have read one interpretation of events into that which is reported I have found reports which show terrorist events being stopped by the use of intercepted traffic data.

As a society, we have to .. I remember tens of thousands of people walking through mainline London stations with me whilst the IRA bombing campaigns were going on. If you happen to get hit, that's just bad luck. We can do something to try and stop it, but perfection will never be achieved.

I too have been in the situation in mainline London stations ... but bear in mind at the time security services were intercepting communications and so on. How many more of IRA campaigns would have succeeded if these communications were not intercepted?

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