Everyone who buys a mobile telephone will be forced to register their identity on a national database under government plans to extend massively the powers of state surveillance.
Phone buyers would have to present a passport or other official form of identification at the point of purchase. Privacy campaigners fear it marks the latest government move to create a surveillance society.
A compulsory national register for the owners of all 72m mobile phones in Britain would be part of a much bigger database to combat terrorism and crime.
If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear from this. The state exists for your own good. After all, someone might want to track your whereabouts 24/7, or listen to your conversations. And we can’t have that.
(Orwell: this one’s for you)
1:03 pm on October 19, 2008
