"Big Brother 'watches more of us every year' "

[pynchonoid]

<http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/05/17/nsnoop17.xml>

Big Brother 'watches more of us every year'
By Robert Uhlig, Technology Correspondent
(Filed: 18/05/2003) 

Police and government officials are demanding access
to personal data on telephone calls and internet use
of more than one million people every year, according
to figures released yesterday.

The information seized by authorities could total more
than a billion items of data, Privacy International, a
pressure group that monitors internet and
telecommunications snooping, said.

Among the information requested by Customs and Excise,
the Financial Services Authority, police forces and
the Radio Communications Agency were credit card
numbers, telephone records and e-mail logs.

Simon Davies, director of Privacy International, said
the estimate was "very much on the low side", adding:
"We literally halved the Home Office estimate, just to
be on the safe side."

According to records, Customs & Excise made 18,940
requests for access to personal records in the first
three months of 2000 and the Metropolitan Police made
127,000 requests in 2001.

Mr Davies said that under powers given in the
Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act, Government
departments and the police asked to see records
detailing more than 100 million phone calls.

The Government wants to extend the number of public
bodies authorised to have access to data.




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