Living in a police-state: Cops can hack YOUR pc!

Yi-Long · Post by **Yi-Long** » 05 Jan 2009, 20:40

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/p ... 439604.ece

How many more of our privacy will we be losing in the coming years? Seriously...

Another sad day for civil rights.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 05 Jan 2009, 21:02

It seems these sorts of links are only ever from the UK. I cannot the UK government is the only one doing it, even if I spot it's an EU directive.

I'd be surprised if the average firewall couldn't stop this, presuming the average user didn't click Allow to every prompt of course. Why? Because it's effectively called "hacking" and that's precisely what firewalls are there to prevent.

I suspect as per usual it's been exaggerated to sell newspapers. Sure there's an element of truth but put simply this sort of shit makes papers sell. People cannot get enough of it.

Wasn't there a case resultantly, similar to this, everyone was up in arms but when it came out what the government was actually trying to do. It was near as extreme as the papers made out. I wish I could remember what it was about exactly.

Markgway · Post by **Markgway** » 05 Jan 2009, 23:13

Civil rights are being eroded daily in the UK -- unless you're an actual criminal.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 05 Jan 2009, 23:31

Markgway wrote:unless you're an actual criminal.

You talk as much nonsense as Romero sometimes.

I doubt criminals get an easy ride, people just like to concentrate on the odd case where they get off.

Markgway · Post by **Markgway** » 06 Jan 2009, 00:14

And I suppose you think ID cards will stop terrorism....?

gasteropod · Post by **gasteropod** » 06 Jan 2009, 00:15

They're lizards!

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 06 Jan 2009, 00:39

Markgway wrote:And I suppose you think ID cards will stop terrorism....?

That's whack.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 09 Jan 2009, 22:57

UK e-mail law 'attack on rights':

From March all internet service providers (ISPs) will by law have to keep information about every e-mail sent or received in the UK for a year.

The Home Office insists the data, which does not include e-mails' content, is vital for crime and terror inquiries. "There's going to be a record of every single e-mail which arrived addressed to you and all the e-mails you sent out via your ISP. "That, of course, includes all the spam.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7819230.stm

Two things:

1. If it doesn't include the body, what's the point? All that is left is the header and subject, not a lot of use really.
2. To store e-mails for a year, including SPAM, would take terrabytes and must be unmanageable.

It's still mighty worrying though.

We all appreciate our e-mails (and telephones calls!) can be recorded and we have no say in it (in other words they're not the slightest bit private) but to store everyone's private conversations "just in case" is too much.

grim_tales · Post by **grim_tales** » 10 Jan 2009, 00:08

I agree Brad, our emails/phonecalls are our business - and to store "all of them", is OTT! I didnt know it wouldnt include what was written in the email, if not, as you say whats the point? You could write any crap in the email unrelated to the subject then, or have [No Subject]

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 10 Jan 2009, 00:39

I imagine they want the header which stores the IP address, where it came from etc... but surely the body is where the bulk of the evidence is stored?

I cannot see them just storing the header, no way. Why go to all that effort, just for that?