There are already ways for police and intelligence agencies to snoop on suspected criminals; they get a warrant, by justifying the need to snoop.
The government is looking to make it easier to snoop on suspected individuals, with less oversight. That in itself is scary, because we are supposed to able to live our law-abiding lives without scrutiny.
It’s also scary, because more data will be held about us in central locations, making ripe targets for criminals to harvest.
The impact snooping has on society is explored to its extreme in George Orwell’s novel “1984”, but this quote from Bruce Schneier highlights my real concerns about living with the expectation of scrutiny.
For if we are observed in all matters, we are constantly under threat of correction, judgment, criticism, even plagiarism of our own uniqueness. We become children, fettered under watchful eyes, constantly fearful that — either now or in the uncertain future — patterns we leave behind will be brought back to implicate us, by whatever authority has now become focused upon our once-private and innocent acts. We lose our individuality, because everything we do is observable and recordable.
Please be careful with our freedoms. Don’t destroy diversity in the UK.
