Posted on 10/19/2008 11:19:06 AM PDT by LibWhacker
Everyone who buys a mobile telephone will be forced to register their identity on a national database under government plans to extend massively the powers of state surveillance.
Phone buyers would have to present a passport or other official form of identification at the point of purchase. Privacy campaigners fear it marks the latest government move to create a surveillance society.
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
Brave new world
Exactly.
BTW, in the UK, one needs a “license” to purchase a satellite dish OR TV so this doesn’t surprise me.
There should come a time when a Brit will need a passport to buy a movie ticket or enter a grocery store.
Maybe some kind of mark to buy or sell anything .............hmmmmmmmmmmmm.............where have I heard that before?
“Do you begin to see, then, what kind of world we are creating? It is the exact opposite of the stupid hedonistic Utopias that the old reformers imagined. A world of fear and treachery and torment, a world of trampling and being trampled upon, a world which will grow not less but more merciless as it refines itself. Progress in our world will be progress toward more pain.”
1984
Comments Section
What about small online retailers, who refurbish phones and sell them, they will be put out of business, as “legit” customers are not going to pass on passport details to an “eBay” seller.
Yet again it seem’s this goverment is trying to ruin small businesses, and allow big companies to profit more.
Sam, Cambridge,
Wonder how many Brits would like to defect to Hong Kong today.
It’s so sad where the world is headed. We’ve had fair warning via the Bible, but it’s still hard to imagine that all these things are actually developing.
Americans criticize Canada for lax security (often with good cause) — yet, you persist in leaving a gaping hole in your security, by allowing unregistered “burners”.
Terrorists, or criminal organizations are able to get a (for most purposes) secure communications system for the price of a few disposable cell phones. In Canada, everyone has to provide identification, before their cell phone is activated. While this does open the door for state surveillance, it also closes a huge gap in the security “wall”.
If we didn't have cause to tighten security in so many other intrusive ways (shoe inspections at airports; passports, biometric ID, no-fly lists, etc.) then I would be 100% against registering cell phones. Considering that we do need most of those other security measures — why leave a gaping hole?
What I hate most about all this is that we’re allowing al-Qaeda to change our way of life, which is what its goal was all along. We’re just getting a little taste of how bad it would be under its rule.
If I had any say in the matter, I wouldn’t limit our freedoms at all, but theirs (anyone who has an unacceptably high probability of being al-Qaeda; e.g., all arabs and muslims, for starters)
I've read on other threads that there's a significant migration OUT of Britain underway.
As if the privacy intrusion wasn’t bad enough, there’s sure to be a new tax as well.
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