UK Government black boxes will 'collect every email'

UK Government black boxes will 'collect every email'

www.independent.co.uk

Internet "black boxes" will be used to collect every email and web visit in the UK under the Government's plans for a giant "big brother" database, The Independent has learnt.

Home Office officials have told senior figures from the internet and telecommunications industries that the "black box" technology could automatically retain and store raw data from the web before transferring it to a giant central database controlled by the Government.

(visit the link for the full news article)

I now realize that the UK is several steps ahead of the United States in losing civil liberties.

Do our UK brothers and sisters and not care what is being done to them?

Being that I don't live in the UK I can't say much, I'm hoping some of the UK ATS'ers can comment on this further.

Pretty scary stuff. Looks like the UK is testing grounds for NSA type of projects.

www.independent.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

I didn't know that the Uk has turned into a communist country,

When that happen?

I care...

But people are so pacified, that whenever you mention things like this to them.... they shrug their shoulders and say... 'so.. what can i do about it?'

This country is going down the pan.

Screw the invasive bastards who run the show. It sickens me.

reply to post by marg6043


pretty much the case , maybe not communist, but deffinitelly problems with people losing their libertys.

funny thing is, havent they been doing this for years anyway via echalon and other rmonitoring stations, not only that if a government goes to the company /isp with the right paperwork they can see it all anyway!

I firmly believe all countries are doing this already . . . we just don't know about it. Rule in law is that there is no reasonable expectation of privacy for anything that goes over the internet, email or is otherwise electronically transferred unless clearly provided for by agreement.

I'd be checking the agreement you signed with your internet provider . . . you'll find that you've got no exepctation of privacy.

It sickens me, but i really don't know what to do about it. Oh i forgot! It's for our own good anyway - right? Nobody who stays witthin the law should be afraid!

In all seriousness, i see us being bashed over not doing anything but what do you suggest we do? Protests don't work, not really. Their have been so many things recently that have just been forced through under different names its just mad.

My last remaining hope is that a change of government at the next election - or maybe a bit of independance for scotland. Who knows :S

Truly sickening. That is all.

If this is the sign of things to come then I want no part of it.

Just make sure your emails contain what you think about the government.

Incidentally, I would have thought this would be a direct contravention of the Data Protection Act

boaby_phet

Hey the UK and its sister the US are falling in the same scam by the same people that rules the world.

reply to post by Anonymous Avatar


We do care.Many say we don't.

The fact that this has been proposed and denied on more than one occassion attests to that.

The UK certainly does care about this kinda thing!! unfortunatly the respectable masses of our small country are too skeptic to believe it or not technicaly minded enough to realise its full implications!

This kinda thing has been happening for years but because it is raw data and there has been no disclosure on their search or monitoring capabilites of the raw data most people seem to just 'shrug' at it!

for me.......I cant stop it alone! It just encorages me to search and research more and more worrying things n wait for the men in black to come take my PC away!!!.........cos as it is, it seems they have everything else of mine!!!

some people believe that conscious decisions are a falsehood......Im starting to believe that living MY life is a falsehood

Being from the u.k i feel i have to reply to this thread..
In a way i'm not really worried because i don't download anything illegal,go on any dodgy sites or send nasty emails,like most of the u.k we go about our buisness as usual,
It will help catch criminals on the net and keep a lid on some of the things going on in cyberspace.
On the other hand i don't like being spyed upon when i use the internet..

i think the days of the internet being a place wherewe can talk freely are coming to an end quicker than we thought

This has been around for a while
thread
but has been woefully under reported.

Conclusion?

Don't rely on the MSM to tell you what's coming - most people haven't even heard of this.

I wonder how long until the government deems encryption illegal. If I lived in the UK, and actually I will be starting to do this anyway, I would make sure I use a strong encryption algorithm for EVERYTHING that is sent over a network.

One of the most used encryption methods for e-mail is called PGP. A simple google search will provide you with all the information you need in order to start protecting your data against unwanted eyes.

Other methods of encryption can be found in a table at :

www.kellermansoftware.com...

Remember, the larger the key, the longer it takes to crack, and exponetially so. There are many encryption standards that have never been cracked yet, so you have quite a few choices in terms of what you want to use.

Now for a very simple, yet effective way of encrypting plain text into cipher text, take a look at this website :

www.fourmilab.ch...

It employs the AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) and is browser based, so no need to download any unnecessary software. I will provide you with an example as to how easy and effective this is. I will encrypt the phrase "Above Top Secret" with a randomly generated hexadecimal key of "AA5B089D2B4E95F0F28FB103918CDC3326740830CF2E84B7E671A3B2B71D8C60". I could use ANYTHING as the key, but the longer your key is, the better chance of your data staying safe.

================================

Plain Text: Above Top Secret

Key: AA5B089D2B4E95F0F28FB103918CDC3326740830CF2E84B7E671A3B2B71D8C60

Resulting Cipher Text in hexadecimal:
##### Encrypted: decrypt with www.fourmilab.ch...
?HX?358101319d11ce3f70de4bc62ad6dca76072339c8481054e225acca718a4
0420fd90464eb44fc7789f4ad50f0249e98485c8c7d835ec173277f1155d2d38
ff86?H
##### End encrypted message


Resulting Cipher Text in codegroup:
##### Encrypted: decrypt with www.fourmilab.ch...
ZZZZZ EIKPK FWVEA EDDBG SWXUV PBPTR VVENC QXECS AMFSQ OIEUN VCQTJ
DBBWX NQLLX SESBQ BWFCM VLQGB JTMMX TTINF JAILQ BRCWS TASQM HVVGH
LMEDI OLABC CBRWW XGUPC KMOZZ YYYYY
##### End encrypted message

Resulting Cipher Text in base64:
##### Encrypted: decrypt with www.fourmilab.ch...
?b64sGpsrI5qii4bkSxz96n53uL00gVetb+xeERuO19GQun//rX9Bm2l72YTsO+C
5SeO3JoMNS0hQl/PYmdt90kLAQ==?64b
##### End encrypted message

========================================

As you can see, there is a few different methods of both generating a key and how you would like your data encrypted. This is a very effective, strong, and easy to use way to encrypt your e-mail text if need be.

I cannot believe the UK has come to this, and I can only guess how long until the USA is doing the same thing. This is something everybody should at least have some familiarity with and know how to do in order to protect your right as a individual to your privacy.

Hope this helps even one of you, and if you have any questions feel free to send me a U2U. Take care!

Originally posted by rhynouk
Being from the u.k i feel i have to reply to this thread..
In a way i'm not really worried because i don't download anything illegal,go on any dodgy sites or send nasty emails,like most of the u.k we go about our buisness as usual,
It will help catch criminals on the net and keep a lid on some of the things going on in cyberspace.
On the other hand i don't like being spyed upon when i use the internet..

i think the days of the internet being a place wherewe can talk freely are coming to an end quicker than we thought

In reponse to you're idea of "If i'm not doing anything illegal, why should I worry?", its not about illegal or not. First and foremost, anyone who is knowingly doing something illegal on the internet is going to have their data encrypted. These types of laws target the law abiding citizens, who while they dont have anything to hide, I am sure they still wouldn't like big brother reading every e-mail you send. I do not do anything illegal yet I still talk about personal matters in e-mails that I would not like the rest of the world to know. I am sure many other law abiding citizens feel the same way. This whole sacrificing freedoms in the name of security is getting out of hand any more, and I only hope that one day the people realize what is happening before its too late... but it may already be so.

Sounds like to me that the UK has its own version of the Carnivore system now...

Do you really expect anything less from world governments?!?

The "interweb" is not as anonymous as you would love to believe.

Yes, unfortunately, it now seems we are rapidly accelerating down this path.

If it begins to change the way i live my life then yes i care. But more importantly i care for my children i bring into this world. What kind of rights and liberties will be left when they reach adulthood?

Originally posted by logicalview
Yes, unfortunately, it now seems we are rapidly accelerating down this path.

If it begins to change the way i live my life then yes i care. But more importantly i care for my children i bring into this world. What kind of rights and liberties will be left when they reach adulthood?

Sadly, I believe the terms rights and liberties will not have the same meaning to our children. Instead, rights and liberties will turn into government permission and oversight.

I will miss it..

With all those asians from pakistan/india and afrikan/middle east etc etc from influx of immigration entering the uk?. Surely our freedom is already at risk from terrors under labour government.

Sooner or later, peoples who'd live in they're own country shall given up everything for the sake of safety.

[edit on 7-11-2008 by Too Paranoid to be Spooky]