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UK to snoop on every phone call, email

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CIOL Bureau
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LONDON, INDIA: The British government, recently revealed it plans to monitor every phone call, email or website visit.

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Plans for this exercise are to be unveiled soon, reports The Telegraph.

According to the paper, the proposals would give police and security services the power to snoop on every single communication made by the public with the data then likely to be stored in an enormous national database.

The precise content of calls and other communications would not be accessible but even text messages and visits to social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter would be tracked.

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The move branded “Orwellian” has alarmed civil liberty campaigners, and the country’s data protection watchdog warned the proposals would be “unacceptable”.

According to the newspaper, home secretary Jacqui Smith will argue the powers are needed to target terrorists and serious criminals who are taking advantage of the increasing complex nature of communications to plot atrocities and crimes.

The proposed powers would allow police and security services to monitor communication “traffic”, which is who calls, texts, emails who, when and where but not what is said, the report said.

Would this 'Orwellian' move to target criminals also affect the privacy of normal users of Internet and mobile phones? How can one address these privacy concerns? Tell us.

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