UK 'sleep walking' to privatised Big Brother state

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The UK is “sleep walking” its way into a privatised Big Brother state thanks to a lack of adequate regulation.

This was the view of Conservative MP and internet privacy campaigner Rob Halfon, who IT PRO caught up with today.

While there are certainly issues with the Government hoarding data on the populace, companies are doing exactly the same, he said.

“We are living in an age ... where our passwords and whatnot are being scraped and being handed out to middlemen who then sell them on to whoever wants it,” Halfon claimed.

“Because the law is so unclear they seem to be harvesting our private details without our permission.”

An internet bill of rights

In the past few months, Halfon has been calling for an internet bill of rights and for the law in this country to change before the nation slips into a “privatised surveillance society.”

Indeed, the Harlow MP has been campaigning heavily for Government action, having held the first parliamentary debate on internet privacy – something that was perhaps a little late in coming.

Nevertheless, the debate was needed and Halfon, who was spurred on by the recent Google Street View scandal, was given deserved praise for his efforts.

"My hope is that a bill of rights would guarantee the rights of consumers as well as protecting their property rights, because in essence if people are stealing emails over Wi-Fi, that is your property," he added.

Tea and crumpets with Google

Halfon's ire has been directed predominantly at the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), in particular its handling of the Google case, which Halfon labelled as “farcical.”

“What’s amazing is that the ICO... went and had tea and crumpets at Google and they sent a couple of lawyers over and no technical staff,” he told us.

“I think the ICO is not fit for purpose. I’m not yet clear as to whether it is because of the people or because of the way it’s been set up but it’s certainly not fit for purpose in its current form. It needs to have clear direction about what it should be doing.”

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