UK Govt.'s Idea of "Communications Capabilities Development": Monitoring IP Traffic

[btarunr]

The UK government has a bizarre idea of "communications capabilities development": mass-monitoring of IP traffic, and snooping into what British netizens are up to. Despite being defeated during the UK Labour Party rule, there seems to be a revival of the idea of greater monitoring of internet traffic under the Conservative government, under a legislation titled "Communications Capabilities Development Programme".

This legislation proposes that ISPs and other communications providers be required to maintain logs of individual users' communications, all of them, starting from web history, to IM, to in-game text/voice chat, e-mails, Skype calls, even Twitter messages. This monitoring should run for at least an year, so the establishment collects enough data to draw patterns around.

"The coalition opposed Labour's plans in opposition. Now, despite civil liberties commitments from the Conservatives and Lib Dems, Home Office officials are planning to push through the same on-line surveillance capabilities." stated the Open Rights Group, "They are not telling Parliament, and hope they can slip commitments to build these new surveillance plans before the politicians really know what they are proposing. The plans are a huge waste of time and money, as well as being a huge intrusion on our civil liberties. Online government surveillance is the last thing we need right now."

So what exactly does the average Briton get out this "development programme"? Security? Not quite. Faster internet in remote parts of the country? Nah! Faster internet in the cities? Not that either. Instead, with a gargantuan data-pile such as all of Britain's internet activity in an year, it's the advertisers and politicians sitting on a gold mine.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[btarunr]

Many Thanks to Qubit for the tip.

Bonus:

 

[Mussels]

and how are ISP's going to afford this massive amount of storage? in game voice chat would amount to some massive amounts of data...

 

[btarunr]

and how are ISP's going to afford this massive amount of storage? in game voice chat would amount to some massive amounts of data...

The size of in-game voice chat data is nothing compared to that of Skype calls.

 

[uber_cookie]

Nothing compares to Steam / Other downloads
Will have hard-disk shortage again

 

[Mussels]

The size of in-game voice chat data is nothing compared to that of Skype calls.

whoever came up with this idea makes me sad. its an impossible task that will bankrupt any ISP that complies, its insane.

 

[TheMailMan78]

In before its Americas fault.

 

[digibucc]

it's mailman's fault now, and therefore america's fault

 

[Vancha]

It's America's fau-...Damn!

Edit: Double damn. Double digi damn.

 

[NdMk2o1o]

In before the attention seeking begi.... nvm :shadedshu

Will never happen, it's unrealistic to pull off not to mention they will not get this through parliament without the people getting hold of it and kicking up a stink.

 

[Completely Bonkers]

It doesnt worry me.

Another "gvt" technology project that will cost billions, allow hundreds of corrupt millions to be embezzelled, and will lead to nothing except an out of date concept still in design and pilot phase in 8 years time, being cancelled and wasting taxpayers money. It will also employ people for a few years to get those statistics down, and allow people to play procurement games and take skims and lock in silly over-the-top prices. It will be supervised by people with little technical competence. And it will be monitored by the children of the people using those video cams on streets that dont catch thieves but watch for people who illegally park for 3 minutes.

If the UK can't digitise medical records, can't build submarines, can't build radar systems, can't get internet to rural sites... it will FAIL in this endeavour.

But it will distract people from other issues. All good political gamesmanship.

 

[Kaynar]

And the solution for those who dont want to participate to UK's new skynet system:

1) Tunnel all your connections through a virtual adapter
2) Purchace a connection to Yourfreedom or Hidemyass
3) re-route all you traffic to the yourfreedom or hidemyass server with encryption

You are not being spied upon anymore.
Next plz.

And it is actually exactly what the person in the post above says.

 

[WhiteLotus]

Fucking tories.

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

Fucking tories.

fucking politicians, and lobbyists lets not forget to curse them bstards

If the UK can't digitise medical records, can't build submarines, can't build radar systems, can't get internet to rural sites... it will FAIL in this endeavour.

But it will distract people from other issues. All good political gamesmanship.

its not going tobe the government doing the work though is it, its Isps and they would be forced by law to comply or cease tradeing and private business finds a way( their (nasa/private firms)discussing building a petral station for rockets in space which cant be finacially sound)

And the solution for those who dont want to participate to UK's new skynet system:

1) Tunnel all your connections through a virtual adapter
2) Purchace a connection to Yourfreedom or Hidemyass
3) re-route all you traffic to the yourfreedom or hidemyass server with encryption

You are not being spied upon anymore.
Next plz.

And it is actually exactly what the person in the post above says.

eh so china and korea can lock down their peeps internet but with a virtual network they would be fine, you underesstimate what could be done, probably is being done anyway

and they only have to list connections between points with dates and times etc for the amount of data logging to be tolerable yet still be usefull to companies and Agencys

 

[qubit]

Fucking tories.

I'd add Labour and Lib Dems to that. They're all the same. They'll do anything for that feeling of power and total control.

 

[digibucc]

They're all the same.

too true. no matter where you are at, they are all the same.

 

[Depth]

SOPA/PIPA in the U.S.
ACTA in Europe
That C-something bill in Canada
Now this in the UK.

All within a few months. I'm not much for the tinfoil hat people and those theories but it can't be coincidental that several world leaders "suddenly" decide to stomp down the internet.

Then again, some people just want to watch the world burn.

 

[TheMailMan78]

SOPA/PIPA in the U.S.
ACTA in Europe
That C-something bill in Canada
Now this in the UK.

All within a few months. I'm not much for the tinfoil hat people and those theories but it can't be coincidental that several world leaders "suddenly" decide to stomp down the internet.

Then again, some people just want to watch the world burn.

Thank the Arab Spring and the London Riots. They were all organized via social media on the web. Thats the connection. Not the Freemasons or the Illuminati or whatever the crackpots dream up.

 

[digibucc]

"thank them" almost seems negative, as though you blame them for it. same with the piracy argument - excuses excuses.
they are agendas that have been pushed long before the london riots & long before napster - those are just catalysts.

even when you can point at a problem and say -> they did it. they rioted, they copied copyrighted data, they did it, ok. someone was bound to, that doesn't in any way excuse what's done in response. to simply hand it off and say "thank those guys" relieves responsibility from the 'wonderful people' that are actually behind the agenda.

it doesn't take illuminati or any "secret" group. it just takes a few people in a position of power with like goals. it's amazing what a positive feedback loop can allow someone to do... righteously.

 

[w3b]

And the solution for those who dont want to participate to UK's new skynet system:

1) Tunnel all your connections through a virtual adapter
2) Purchace a connection to Yourfreedom or Hidemyass
3) re-route all you traffic to the yourfreedom or hidemyass server with encryption

You are not being spied upon anymore.
Next plz.

And it is actually exactly what the person in the post above says.

HideMyAss did wonders for Anonymous
http://www.informationweek.com/news/security/privacy/231602248

Further I wouldn't trust any Government with that kind of data (even one I were in charge of myself) as it's way too open to abuse :shadedshu

Off topic; the first post I've made on this forum with the quote by Benjamin Franklin in my signature, while matching the theme of this thread, is a cool coincidence

 

[TheMailMan78]

"thank them" almost seems negative, as though you blame them for it. same with the piracy argument - excuses excuses.
they are agendas that have been pushed long before the london riots & long before napster - those are just catalysts.

even when you can point at a problem and say -> they did it. they rioted, they copied copyrighted data, they did it, ok. someone was bound to, that doesn't in any way excuse what's done in response. to simply hand it off and say "thank those guys" relieves responsibility from the 'wonderful people' that are actually behind the agenda.

it doesn't take illuminati or any "secret" group. it just takes a few people in a position of power with like goals. it's amazing what a positive feedback loop can allow someone to do... righteously.

Well honestly thats not even how I meant it. lol. I'm just saying the agenda got a lot more supporters because of the Arab spring and riots. Way to take it out of context!