massive government database holding details of every phone call, e-mail and time spent on the internet by the public is being planned as part of the fight against crime and terrorism. Internet service providers (ISPs) and telecoms companies would hand over the records to the Home Office under plans put forward by officials.
The information would be held for at least 12 months and the police and security services would be able to access it if given permission from the courts.
The proposal will raise further alarm about a "Big Brother" society, as it follows plans for vast databases for the ID cards scheme and NHS patients. There will also be concern about the ability of the Government to manage a system holding billions of records. About 57 billion text messages were sent in Britain last year, while an
estimated 3 billion e-mails are sent every day.
Home Office officials have discussed the option of the national database with telecommunications companies and ISPs as part of preparations for a data communications Bill to be in November's Queen's Speech. But the plan has not been sent to ministers yet.
Jonathan Bamford, the assistant Information Commissioner, said: "This would give us serious concerns and may well be a step too far. We are not aware of any justification for the State to hold every UK citizen's phone and internet records. We have real doubts that such a measure can be justified, or is proportionate or desirable. We have warned before that we are sleepwalking into a surveillance society.
Holding large collections of data is always risky - the more data that is collected and stored, the bigger the problem when the data is lost, traded or stolen."
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Slowly but surely, it seems, the humble phone line is heading for retirement. First it was the growth in mobile phones and generous "capped call" plans, which have allowed many people - especially twentysomethings and short-term renters - to escape being tied to a landline.
Then came VoIP technology, which let you make phone calls over the internet rather than route them through the traditional telephone network. But there was a catch: to use VoIP you needed broadband and most broadband connections still require a telephone line.
Now there's a new type of broadband service called naked DSL, or nDSL, which not only removes the need for an active phone line but lets you ditch the monthly line rental charges. That's a saving of more than $20 a month based on Telstra's cheapest line rental.
You still need the physical line to connect your PC to the internet but that line no longer has to be "live". There's no dial tone so it's as if the line has gone dead.
But it's not dead: it's just a "naked" or bare bones copper line without any services loaded onto it. Sign up for naked DSL and that line becomes your super-speed ADSL2+ broadband pipe to the internet.
Naked DSL has obvious appeal to anyone who has already slashed their phone bill by moving to VoIP, where call costs are a fraction of those charged by the standard landline carriers. For them, a hard-wired phone line - and the mandatory monthly rental that goes with it - is largely redundant.
It's also a winner for anyone who mainly uses the mobile to make and take calls, and doubly so for renters who may baulk at paying Telstra's $59 telephone connection fee every time they move into new premises. Naked DSL can be activated on an otherwise "dead" phone socket without a technician making a house call.
But the bare truth of the matter is that naked DSL isn't for everyone.
"It's certainly getting a lot of hype and no one likes paying line rental when they don't use their phone much or at all," says Phil Sweeney, editor of Australia's popular Whirlpool broadband hub. But Sweeney says that there's still a small line rental cost attached to nDSL plans - it's just rolled into the overall plan and paid direct to your internet service provider rather than Telstra.
"This hidden cost can range from $15-$20, so while it's typically less than what you'd pay for line rental the saving may only be $5-10 depending on what line rental plan you're on. And it can be worth paying that little extra to have a landline there just in case you need it, in case the net or VoIP isn't working or for incoming calls."
Have a look.
http://www.panateldirect.com
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