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Details of every phone call made in Britain will be available to the police and the Government from today.
A law is now in force requiring telephone companies to keep information about landline and mobile communications for up to a year.
The time and length of the call and the name and address of the phone's owner will be recorded under the legislation, brought in as part of the Government's anti-terrorism measures.
Phone masts will be used to pinpoint the location of the mobile caller and this will also remain on record. However, content will not be recorded.
Applications to view the information are made to a senior police officer. Among the 652 bodies entitled to apply are the police, the Gaming Board and the Food Standards Agency.
Civil liberties groups such as Liberty say the law gives too many organisations access to the information.
A Liberty spokesman said: 'A recent poll suggests 75 per cent believe we live in a surveillance society. It's time the authorities did something to win back our trust.'
A Home Office spokesman said the law followed a directive from the EU.
'Imposing requirements on phone service providers to retain data is part of the difficult balance between protecting people from terrorism and serious crime, and respecting people's human rights,' he added.
We're losing our privacy / civil liberties etc. etc. etc.
all this anxiety over cctv and 'surveillance' reveals just how massively self-centered people are.
there's a camera outside a shop on a high street, thousands of people are "captured" (nice evocative language btw) on cctv. you're just another blob on the screen. i know you're a special unique snowflake and everything but the man probably isn't too interested in your trips to the supermarket.
not sure why the gaming board need to know phonecall details. But then i imagine it will almost impossible for them to obtain the info from the police, as they wont hand the info out to anyone without a very good reason. The police do love being anal about stuff like that - which probably isnt a bad thing.
I thought the police could already get this info off the phone companies anyway? (they always do on The Bill )
as people have said before such a non story
When a society is lawless enough to need to be controlled they will be controlled.
If everyone behaved themselves it wouldn't be necessary so however small your misdemeanour you shouldn't think "yeah, but I'm not hurting anyone". If you're not adhering to the law, you're not adhering to the law - plain and simple!
Originally posted by Ruudfood:
When a society is lawless enough to need to be controlled they will be controlled.
If everyone behaved themselves it wouldn't be necessary so however small your misdemeanour you shouldn't think "yeah, but I'm not hurting anyone". If you're not adhering to the law, you're not adhering to the law - plain and simple!
The causal link works backwards too though. I.e. pervasive control breeds disobedience.
Nanny State part 2567 
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