Joe Blog's A Day In The Life Of Your Average Joe

Privacy Becoming A Thing Of The Past?

More and more it seems to be the case that privacy just doesn't matter to Governments anymore. It's becoming a sad state of affairs in the UK now as well.

I was just reading an article on slashdot after being linked to it on IRC. And I have to say I'm frankly appalled that anything like this could even be passed as a viable and privacy respecting piece of legislation. Basically it says something along the lines of:

UK Police, in collaboration with other EU authorities will have the power to remotely search people's PC's to find evidence et al. All without a warrant.

Wait...I'm sorry what? So apparently, as a UK citizen I'm supposed to sit here and have some random people hack into my network and have a snoop around my PC for any evidence. Now I'm assuming this would only be if you're suspected of a crime, but either way it's not ethically right to be permitted to do this. It's equivilant to me thinking "Oh hey, I think that car might be fun to drive" and promptly walking into a showroom, and stealing it, then (possibly) bringing it back later (possibly) intact.

It just seems to me that the UK is becoming more and more of a Nanny/Police/Health & Safety Obsessed/Big Brother state, and I'm getting increasingly frustrated with it. I wouldn't want to have to move abroad just because of some quite frankly idiotic policies, but if it comes to that, it's something I'd have to do. I don't want to be living in a real world 1984 (the book)/Orwellian nation .

As I'm sure you've noticed, I'm pretty much 99% opposed to this, but if anybody can provide a good counter argument as to why this should ever be permitted...I'd love to hear it

2 Other Sources:
Slashdot Article
Times Online Article