Giant Database Plan "Orwellian"

[Tillane]

BBC News: Giant database plan "Orwellian"

Remind me not to make any more phone calls. Or texts. Or e-mails.

Actually, I probably shouldn't be posting this at all...

[Drachir]

Hmm, perhaps I should turn off the TV while I enter this.

[pyan]

I shouldn't be too concerned - this government will probably give the contract to EDS, and with their record....

[Ursa major]

If Al Q ever decides to start blanket, multiple cold-calling and/or spamming, we'll have to declare the whole country as a high security prison.


I heard Lord Carlile, the independent reviewer of British anti-terrorist laws - and someone who has defended (or, perhaps, has been unmoved by many of the criticisms of) many of the government's more controversial security proposals - comparing this to what the Stasi used to do.

[gully_foyle]

Your government will then sell your credit card details to a bunch of hackers and give your web logs to marketing companies and your email addresses to citibank. Then some pleb will take a copy of it all and put it in his briefcase and leave it on the train.

[Tillane]

Originally Posted by pyan

I shouldn't be too concerned - this government will probably give the contract to EDS, and with their record....

Nah. There won't be enough EDS bods left to run it once HP have finished with them (I should know; our EDS support team was cut from 8 to 1 a couple of weeks ago...). No, the contract will go to Accenture. And with their record...

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

[pyan]

Oh, you're familiar with the British method of data control then, Gully?

Originally Posted by Till

No, the contract will go to Accenture

Run away! Run away!!

[gully_foyle]

Yes, I read it in the funny pages.

[Tillane]

Originally Posted by pyan

Run away! Run away!!

Wish I could, Py. Unfortunately, I have to work with them...

Which, on the bright side, means I might actually get to test this new database. *rubs hands together, an evil grin on his face*

Oh, yes. Be very afraid.

[thaddeus6th]

The Stasi were a bunch of intelligent and efficient thugs, and Labour are neither intelligent nor efficient.

It's another mindless affront to civil liberties, and it'll cost £12bn (probably end up being more if the ballooning NHS database cost is anything to go by) at a time when we really don't have spare cash to waste on this pointless and offensive endeavour.

[Dave]

Originally Posted by thaddeus6th

...and it'll cost £12bn (probably end up being more if the ballooning NHS database cost is anything to go by)

The building will take an extra 5 years to finish, but will be found to be too small to house the hardware anyway. The software will be full of bugs and the company given the contract will pull out because the government keep changing the specifications. When it is finally near to completion the whole system will crash loosing half of the information, at which point a change of government will cancel the whole project. They will be unable to locate several of the disks though. These will subsequently appear for sale on eBay.

[thaddeus6th]

And then there's the ID card database....

Damned government.

[HanaBi]

no doubt the national database will get transferred onto a flash drive and get left on a train by some pen pushing civil servant. The government will go "oh dear, let's have an investigation. This is most serious!"


What worries me more is the fact that all police authorities in England will be issued with portable electronic fingerprint scanners. If they see anyone looking remotely dodgy they can fingerprint them!

Of course the old bill reckon the data won't be stored permanently if the suspect is innocent, but given they also have the DNA samples of 4 million people in this country, 99% of them innocent, I really don't have much faith in what they say anymore.

Let's just have barcodes on our foreheads or electronic tagging chips inserted in our arms and be done with it

[TheEndIsNigh]

The thing that amuses me is the amount of date they are going to be storing and that some idiot thinks they will be able to make use of it.

Not to mention the copyright aspects. Unless they plan a marathon negotiation with every country in the world to change the laws on taking illegal copies of IPR.

[andrew.v.spencer]

There's nothing to be afraid of. Thaddeus 6th, or should I say David Green of 24 Notreal Street, London, you are of course entitled to your opinion. If you look out of your window now, you'll see a friendly government information worker come to explain why there's nothng to worry about. If you're still alarmed you and all your friends (simon, jessica, michael, ralph and so on); can come and stay for a week at our little holiday facility where the government and citizens get to know each other better.

You see, there is nothing to fear about your friendly Government knowing more. It's for your own protection.