[Anonymouse]

Originally Posted by OldBear

Phone calls database considered

Oh, for...no, no, no, they have to be kidding! No way will businesses - especially banks - stand for that. No way. If they even try to implement that, everyone will be encrypting everything, and then they'll be totally stuffed unless they want to try to use RIPA to haul in for questioning (i.e. obtaining encryption keys) at least a third if not more of the entire UK population.

No. They cannot be seriously considering that, "security" be damned. The "threat" from "terrorists" is not enough to even attempt to justify such insanity. Don't they understand yet that by bringing in such measures they are losing the "war"? The clear implication is that they are admitting/claiming that their current measures, techniques and legal powers are inadequate, so they need to lift passages right out of 1984 and make them a reality.

Compared to this, the threat from Phorm seems almost trivial - even if it's possible, which frankly I doubt. How many millions of phone calls and emails are made/sent every day? Can a single database even hold so many data? And what the hell use will it be anyway when the "terrorists" and criminals will, as the article suggests, use encryption and PAYG phones? IronKey are going to be doing a roaring trade, unless the government goes the US route and prohibits encryption by private individuals.

It seems that free speech will shortly be literally impossible without encryption - and, of course, they'll ask the usual asinine question: "Well, what have you got to hide, then?"

When, and how, is this madness going to stop?!

And just in case, I note that I do not intend to disappear from this forum or from public view in the near future - unless they do this, in which case I shall never browse or make a phone call ever again. This disclaimer is, it seems, becoming more and more relevant by the day. As hopeless as it sounds, there has to be a way to stop them...