Britain, a nation that has "sleepwalked into a surveillance society," taps 450,000 email addresses and phones. Now the snoops are arguing that they should be able to wiretap Members of Parliament as well:
In the first report of its kind from the Interceptions of Communications Commissioner, it was also revealed that nearly 4,000 errors were reported in a 15-month period from 2005 to 2006. While most appeared to concern “lower-level data” such as requests for telephone lists and individual e-mail addresses, 67 were mistakes concerning direct interception of communications.
Sir Swinton Thomas, the report’s author, described the figure as “unacceptably high”.
The disclosures came as Tony Blair admitted that the fingerprints of everyone obtaining identity cards could be checked against nearly a million unsolved crimes.
(via /.)