Jonathan Petre & Tom Harper
Sunday, Dec 27th, 2009
Telecoms firms have accused the Government of acting
like the East German Stasi over plans to force them to store the
details of every phone call for at least a year.
Under the proposals, the details of every email sent and website
visited will also be recorded to help the police and security services
fight crime and terrorism.
But mobile phone companies have attacked the plans as a massive
assault on privacy and warned it could be the first step towards a
centralised ‘Big Brother’ database.
They have also told the Home Office that the scheme is deeply flawed.
The criticism of Britain’s growing ‘surveillance
culture’ was made in a series of responses to an official
consultation on the plans, which have been obtained by The Mail on
Sunday.
T-Mobile said in its submission that it was a ‘particularly
sensitive’ time as many people were commemorating the 20th
anniversary of the protests that led to the collapse of
‘surveillance states in Eastern Europe’.
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