WILL THE GOVERNMENT REPLICATE BIG BROTHER?
An Internet Service Provider (ISP) is what every household must use to get connected to the internet. The majority of ISP companies offer various packages and speeds.
Since the implementation of broadband, data speeds have gradually become faster. The days of dial-up modems are quickly becoming a thing of the past. We are now in an era of Wi-Fi internet, where 8mbps connections are deemed as a satisfactory speed.
Every website you visit is logged by your computer, unless you enable private browsing modes available in internet browsers such as Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome. That's fine, your computer enables you to build up an archive so that you never forget the good websites you've visited.
However, the UK Government is implementing some controversial new legislations, that will affect every computer user in Britain. All telecommunication companies and Internet Service Providers (ISP's) are required to keep a record of every customers personal communications by law. This includes all of the websites you visit, and who you have contacted; with specific details of where and when, for a period of twelve months.
This new law increases the amount of personal data that can be obtained via the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA); which was only supposed to be used for terrorism purposes.
This new legislation is known as the Intercept Modernisation Programme. It forces every company to effectively monitor and archive every online mouse click, in a Big Brother fashion.
Companies such as BT, Orange and Vodafone will be involved in storing the data, with a monumental cost of £10billion over a ten year period; paid for by the tax payer of course.
Ministers originally wanted to store information on a single government run database, but decided not to due to privacy concerns. However, they are pressing on ahead with the privately held databases, and a Big Brother society is becoming ever closer.
These new laws will have a profound impact on Internet Service Providers (ISP's). For example, if 20 billion emails are sent via the internet each year, and each email is only 2 kilobytes in size (mainly text), and the ISP is forced to store all messages for twelve months, then approximately 7000 terabytes of storage is needed worldwide. This was discovered via research from IDC in 2001. The majority of emails today are rarely 2 kilobytes in size, in fact most are now measured in megabytes. Storage costs money, and the consumer will have to foot the increased bill.
You could argue that the government is implementing a perfectly legitimate law; after all if you've got nothing to hide what's the problem? However, how would you feel if authorities knew extensive amounts of information about your life, who's to say data will only be used for criminal investigations?
Posted on 2/16/2010 by JUDICIOUS JOE and filed under
DIGITAL CULTURES
| 0 Comments »
Since the implementation of broadband, data speeds have gradually become faster. The days of dial-up modems are quickly becoming a thing of the past. We are now in an era of Wi-Fi internet, where 8mbps connections are deemed as a satisfactory speed.
Every website you visit is logged by your computer, unless you enable private browsing modes available in internet browsers such as Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome. That's fine, your computer enables you to build up an archive so that you never forget the good websites you've visited.
However, the UK Government is implementing some controversial new legislations, that will affect every computer user in Britain. All telecommunication companies and Internet Service Providers (ISP's) are required to keep a record of every customers personal communications by law. This includes all of the websites you visit, and who you have contacted; with specific details of where and when, for a period of twelve months.
This new law increases the amount of personal data that can be obtained via the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA); which was only supposed to be used for terrorism purposes.
This new legislation is known as the Intercept Modernisation Programme. It forces every company to effectively monitor and archive every online mouse click, in a Big Brother fashion.
Companies such as BT, Orange and Vodafone will be involved in storing the data, with a monumental cost of £10billion over a ten year period; paid for by the tax payer of course.
"Whilst this is no doubt necessary in persuing terrorist suspects, the proposals are so intrusive that they should be subject to legal approval, and should not be available except in pursuit of the most serious crimes."
David Davis (former Shadow Home Secretary)Ministers originally wanted to store information on a single government run database, but decided not to due to privacy concerns. However, they are pressing on ahead with the privately held databases, and a Big Brother society is becoming ever closer.
These new laws will have a profound impact on Internet Service Providers (ISP's). For example, if 20 billion emails are sent via the internet each year, and each email is only 2 kilobytes in size (mainly text), and the ISP is forced to store all messages for twelve months, then approximately 7000 terabytes of storage is needed worldwide. This was discovered via research from IDC in 2001. The majority of emails today are rarely 2 kilobytes in size, in fact most are now measured in megabytes. Storage costs money, and the consumer will have to foot the increased bill.
You could argue that the government is implementing a perfectly legitimate law; after all if you've got nothing to hide what's the problem? However, how would you feel if authorities knew extensive amounts of information about your life, who's to say data will only be used for criminal investigations?
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