UK officials plan to monitor Britons’ online activities by placing surveillance devices on the country’s telecom networks, a Parliamentary report says. The program would keep tabs on which websites were visited as well as who contacted whom. [Source: RT.com]
That will include anyone who communicates with the UK internationally… While they will mostly just note who contacted who and when (as already happens, legally, in the USA), they might also store the content as well – although there might be storage limit issues unless they are building massive facilities.
It looks like this will soon apply to all countries. Those with oppressive regimes already do it, the USA is ramping up their abilities, and now the UK as well. From here on in, expect that any online activity that can be directly linked to yourself to be monitored, analyzed and shared.
- Your IP address (if it is fixed)
- Your email address
- Your phone number / SIM card
- Your name
To avoid such prying, you need to send encrypted information via a VPN (virtual private network). Because the smartest criminals and terrorists will also be doing this, the governments will be wanting to shut this down as well. They could achieve this by:
- Identifying VPN services and flagging any activity via their servers as potentially suspicious
- Setting up commercial VPN services or colluding with existing VPN services
So you really need to trust the VPN you are using.
Keep in mind that government bodies do not have the time or inclination to spy on lawful activities and communications – they truly just want to catch the bad guys. But if you partake in “grey area” activities and conversations, that might include you.
