Banish Big Brother: The state's surveillance powers must be curbed, say Lords

Banish Big Brother: The state's surveillance powers must be curbed, say Lords

www.dailymail.co.uk

Peers will today demand a drastic curtailing of ‘Big Brother’ surveillance powers.

They will call for reforms to stamp out abuses and to safeguard Britain’s traditions of democracy and privacy.

Their report highlights mounting fears over the growth of the DNA database and the proliferation of CCTV networks.

(visit the link for the full news article)

It seems like some good news for a change. The House of Lords in Britain has called for reform. The systems have been abused too much, as they say in the article:

Some councils have been using the secret spying powers to crack down on dog fouling, littering and families suspected of lying over school admissions.

These systems and methods are supposed to only be used for very serious cases like terrorists, but have increasingly been used badly, and applied on everyone.

They mention in the article the DNA database. There are many people on that database who have never been convicted of any crime. Even the EU recently criticized Britain for this.

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

Wow after all this Lords sleeze they've stuck their head into a news paper and decided to make a wild statement to try and make them look good, HA i'll believe it when i see it.

It is scary over there. I, personally, have never been to England, but I have had friends who have been and have talked about how blatant the cameras are everywhere they went over there. I know in out major cities that we have traffic cams and private security cams. I guess it is only a matter of time until we have the invasion of privacy that has been prevalent in Britain. I doubt that that they will get them to remove or reduce the invasion of privacy, because if anything with government the more they get their hands into the less likely they will ever relinquish control back to the people once they have given up a freedom. I hope for your country sake you guys can get some privacy back and that us here never let that kind of control slip out our control here in America.

Well this is an interesting turn of events; I can probably guarantee that the only reason it's being brought up is because those abuses have been done on them lol. If it had never touched them, they wouldn't care.

and this is why the politicans have been trying to abolish the house of lords for some time.....they actually try to do the right thing sometimes.

you can mind control people to vote for ai candidates but you cant mind control people to vote a peer as they are hereditary.

Yes it is pervasive and it is already undermining society...

But this may be exactly what it is intended to do. Break ociety down so that people get out of control , riot, protest, get arrested, sent to prison, thus giving credibility to the surveillance state.

I feel this is not just a threat to privacy, but a threat to our general freedoms.

Not only does the UK have cctv everywhere and the building of a DNA database, but it also has loud speakers in certain areas that 'tell you off' if you drop litter or are a general nuisance to others. The people who sit and watch the cctv and then talk to you via these speakers may even tell you to stay where you are whilst the police are called.

So, you're gonna do what they say are you?
You are a criminal, you've just done wrong and you're gonna listen to some person who is sat in a control room somewhere.
Just what sort of social programing is big brother forcing upon us?

They call it an 'essential crime fighting tool', but it is being used in the wrong manner and possibly for the wrong reasons.

The national ID database could be very useful if it was used in the right way.
For example, jobs could be offered to the correctly skilled/experienced people. Housing could be offered to those who need it most or allocate temporary housing into empty buildings.

Used in the correct manner, the system could prevent homelesness and unemployment, but no, it seems that maintaining control and putting fear into the citizens is of more importance in raising revenue for the companies behind all of this, which includes the government.

"There can be no justification for this gradual but incessant creep towards every detail about us being recorded and pored over by the state," committee chairman and Tory peer Lord Goodlad said.

news.bbc.co.uk...

An estimated 4 million cctv cameras in the UK!! why? what is it these people actually fear? why do they feel the need to place us all under the thumb? Have he public woken up to a point where control has gone and TPTB realise they are losing their grip?

Gone are the days of 'God save the Queen', gone are the days of 'die fr your country'...many are now realising that these forms of power and control are out dated and almost medieval.

We are born on planet Earth, we have no say into which country, place, town or family we are born into. The invasion of our privacy, the control of our lives must be stopped. We are free if we choose to be, learning to break free is the difficult part. Staying free in a society that is hell bent on slavery through financial control, police dominance and the illusion of terrorism is almost impossible, but not completely.

"Ministers have sanctioned a massive increase in surveillance over the last decade, at great cost to the taxpayer, without properly assessing either its effectiveness or taking adequate steps to protect the privacy of perfectly innocent people," said shadow justice secretary Dominic Grieve.

news.bbc.co.uk...
Which just goes to show that their must be some higher agenda behind all this, most probably profit and control. It has to be aimed at a much more long-term goal and not just for now, but actually for somewhere around the 2020 years.

What we have now can only be the start of a much bigger idea. Everyone being arrested will be on the DNA database, this information will be carried over. It could be used at a later date on your children if they are ever arrested. The control of births by those who are deemed to have the genes for 'corrupt' behaviour will be enforced and people may be forced to be sterilised.

We are yet to realise the full potential of this surveillance state.

Where do you get this notion of CCTV cameras EVERYWHERE!

True, there may be a few in the city/town centres but EVERYWHERE! The larger the city/town, obviously the more CCTV cameras there are.

Where I live, there are none along my street, none along my route to work which is 6 miles away. The only CCTV cameras that clock me are when I get to work in the car park and thats because I work in a hospital.

Incidently, MOST of the cameras are privately owned NOT Government owned. There have been enough threads about the UK's use of CCTV cameras on this forum, I suggest you all do some research.

Originally posted by Wotan
Where do you get this notion of CCTV cameras EVERYWHERE!



Where I live, there are none along my street, none along my route to work which is 6 miles away. The only CCTV cameras that clock me are when I get to work in the car park and thats because I work in a hospital.

I take it from your location, you're on the Isle of Wight? So, no, hardly indicative of the mainland. Have you not looked round when you've been to Portsmouth, or Southampton?

Are there no petrol stations on your way to work? Going to be a few there.

Originally posted by Extralien
Gone are the days of 'God save the Queen', gone are the days of 'die fr your country'...many are now realising that these forms of power and control are out dated and almost medieval.

It's just a shame the medieval royal family won't get lost, they just are a downer on the whole idea of the UK being any kind of democracy. I think many people would still fight for country if there was really a need.

Let me first say that I am against the constant surveillance by Big Brother, as I believe that the data collected can and will be used for purposes outside of mere crime prevention. The potential for abuse is HUGE and I believe that this is a very dangerous method for protecting your citizens.

That being said, the cameras are already there, the DNA database is already there and despite the efforts of the House of Lords, Big Brother will most likely continue to grow. This brings up a few issues:

Full encryption of personal data stored on computers should become the norm, the report urges....

Critics have seized on high-profile losses of personal files by the Government – including the entire child benefit database covering 25million people – as evidence that the state cannot be trusted to safeguard such material.

How can this info NOT be fully encrypted? If you are trying to "protect" your citizens, this is the least you can do.

‘If the public are to trust that information about them is not being improperly used there should be much more openness about what data is collected, by whom and how it is used.’

If you are collecting all of this data, quite often without the expressed consent of those being monitored, it is absolutely essential that there is some transparency into how this information is being used. Very sketchy business, in my opinion.

reply to post by RubberBaron


The idea of fighting for ones country is a poor excuse these days...most people fight because they are trying to protect themselves and those closest to them.. we all tend to be more concerned about or direct friends and family before our country...

i would most certainly fight to defend my family... but if my country wants to continue down the route of 24/7 surveillance and data base building then i'll be one of the first to open the gates o let the trojan horse come rolling in...

the 'enemy' are welcome to the mess we live in right now..i'll take my family elsewhere and continue to live how i see fit... away from big brthers prying gaze and all that this country has become...

I've moved away before (circumstance brought me back ) and i'll move away again...