Britain may outsource large surveillance database

Another personal information database controversy from Britain: The U.K. Home Office is moving forward with a £12 billion plan for a massive database to track phone calls, e-mails, and chat conversations in the country. What is more, the Telegraph’s Aislinn Simpson reports that the database project would likely be outsourced to private firms.

Sir Ken MacDonald, the former director of Public Prosecutions, calls the database a “hellhouse” of personal private information. Despite the government’s assurances that the content of e-mails would not be stored and that the data would be strongly protected (“We have been very clear that there are no plans for a database containing any content of emails, texts of conversations,” a Home Office spokesman said), critics contend that the fact remains that the British government is leaky when it comes to personal information.

Sir Ken does not believe the government would be able to prevent improper exposure of the data.

Authorizations for access might be written into statute. The most senior ministers and officials might be designated as scrutineers. But none of this means anything. All history tells us that reassurances like these are worthless in the long run. In the first security crisis the locks would loosen.

The tendency of the state to seek ever more powers of surveillance over its citizens may be driven by protective zeal. But the notion of total security is a paranoid fantasy which would destroy everything that makes living worthwhile. This database would be an unimaginable hellhouse of personal private information. It would be a complete readout of every citizen’s life in the most intimate and demeaning detail. No government of any color is to be trusted with such a roadmap to our souls.