BIG BROTHER NATION

Nowhere to run and nowhere to hide

Do you know that the UK is the most spied upon nation in the world? The average person will have been caught on camera 300 times a day. The UK has 6000 speed cameras and eight thousand automatic number plate recognition devices, a device that reacts if your car is wanted for things such as; no insurance, stolen number plates or if the vehicle has been involved in a crime.

Imagine every phone call or text you send being monitored by the authorities, because that is just what is happening. Telephone companies now have to keep records on all landline and mobile calls you make for at least twelve months, landline and mobile phone calls made by British Citizens and businesses will detail precisely what calls are made, the time, duration of the call and the name and address of the registered user.

Records on mobile phone calls will reveal almost exactly where people are when they make a call. This can also be used to track someone's route even if they are in a moving vehicle. Electronic records will also be kept on text messages sent or received, the number the text was sent from although the content of text messages is not kept on record.

The information is available to 652 public bodies, including NHS Trusts, The Department for Transport, local councils and The Food Standards Agency. Why all these organisations need access to this kind of personal information is yet to be proven, already data has been misused or mislaid. On the plus side, certain aspects could be important to help find serious criminals or terrorist, but most agencies are allowed access or purposes that are too general with no apparent guidelines.

Although every authority has a nominated senior member of staff who is legally responsible for the use of phone data, this does not stop the data getting into the wrong hands and the senior member of staff being able to blame a junior member of staff, as suggested at what happened when the two discs with 25 million peoples child benefit and bank details went missing from HM Revenue & Customs.