Over half of Britons oppose data retention laws
Apr 14th, 2009 | By Web Team | Category: Campaign news
An EU directive that will see all phone calls, e-mails and internet activity stored for a year has attracted widespread opposition according to a poll conducted for the Metro newspaper.
The poll, carried out by PoliticsHome, found that a massive 60 per cent of Britons rejected the laws with a mere 23% in favour of the scheme.
The directive will be used in a bid to tackle crime and terrorism, despite the fact that only 22% of participants said they would feel safer compared with 33% who said the laws would make them feel less secure.
What’s more, a staggering 63% of participants believe the government already holds too much information on individuals with a 56% majority increasingly concerned about the development of a ‘Big Brother state’. Only 33% consider current levels of data retention to be ‘about right’.
Other key findings were that a total of 58% of people agree with the statement: ‘There is no such thing as secure data storage. It inevitably gets into the wrong hands.’ Participants cited the Government’s horrendous track record with data blunders as the main reason for their opposition.
Michael Parker, of campaign group No2ID, said: ‘This survey shows the public are far more sensitive to people abusing their privacy than the government might have hoped.’
Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty, said: ‘This survey demonstrates what we have said for some time, that the government has lost touch with public opinion on the importance of personal privacy. This is the clearest signal that it’s high time the supertanker was turned around.’
Freddie Sayers, editor of PoliticsHome, said: ‘Traditionally, fears about the so-called Big Brother state are strongest among Conservative and Liberal Democrat supporters. But this survey shows that even Labour Party supporters have turned against these kinds of measures.’
As a longstanding campaigner and researcher on transgender issues, I am frequently in correspondence with individuals who are deeply concerned about privacy and confidentiality in relation to their personal circumstances. It is not uncommon for transgender people to be subject to violent attacks if they are identified as such by the public, and many lose their jobs and suffer family disruption. Naturally, the thought that our correspondence might be retained and read by individuals who have no personal reason to care about their safety or well-being, and who may well share transphobic prejudices common in the population at large, is extremely worrying. For this reason among others I give my full support to the Liberal Democrats’ campaign against these intrusive measures.
I blogged about this here
The EU passed this directive as a ‘Commercial matter’ the UK government have said that it is about policing and national security – much longer piece on my blog.
It’s a clearly ridiculous state of affairs, and I’m reassured that the majority of the public, opposition parties, and even some of New Labour itself realise this. How long will it take for people like Jacqui Smith, Geoff Hoon and Gordon Brown to realise that we don’t like being spied upon? Before or after the 2010 election? Are they really that keen on losing votes?! The sooner they stop forcing these draconian measures to be imposed the better. Oh well, at least it will give you something to keep you busy repealing if you’re elected.
It’s not like the government has paid any attention to the public in the past… I’ve said it for years, our data should be carried around like launch codes; a briefcase handcuffed to the person using it. Until they do, I wouldn’t trust them to hold my coat!