Policing - and the Internet !

Law enforcement is putting pressure on the government to enact a law to force Internet providers to store all data on transactions for a yet to be decided period of years.    They want the ability to troll through this information in the interest of crime prevention.

Of course, the police would like the right to stroll through your home at will, examine your diary and personal effects - and if they find evidence of crime - arrest you as a result.   As the present laws stand, they must have a reasonable suspicion capable of convincing a judge before they will be granted such a search warrant.

This is a very intrusive law change proposal.   Every " Google " search you make on your computer could be examined by a police officer.   If you think you have illness symptoms and start looking for medical information, what may be the police conclusion reached ?    Does law enforcement really need to know precisely who you phoned on every day of the past few years ?

Modern technology already intrudes on personal privacy. If you have a " smart phone " it can tell the servicing company precisely where you are on planet earth by triangulating  between phone towers.  If this law comes into force, it is possible that every phone conversation or SMS message may be recorded for retrieval  at the click of a mouse.

It all smacks of " Big Brother " - and the usual inducement to giving it the nod is the claim that " the innocent have nothing to fear ".    Law enforcement plays up the positive side.  Knowing precisely where you were and what you were doing at any given time is an alibi that can prove your innocence.

The retention of mass information will come at a cost to all the service providers involved.  It will require the installation of vast data banks - and obviously this cost will end up being passed on to consumers.

Privacy seems to be the last frontier between personal liberty and an intrusive police state.  The " right to silence " is under attack in our courts and now there is a proposal to make every conversation we have on a phone and every visit to the Internet public property, to be examined at will by law enforcement.

The politicians we elect are supposed to guard our privacy and enact the spirit of our will.   It is precisely these same people who will either bolster our privacy defence - or usher in a new era of public scrutiny- if this new law succeeds !