Jon Bright (London, OK): You may remember towards the end of September last year we reported briefly that Jacqui Smith had, by more or less "personal decree", given power to look at your phone records to almost 800 councils, quangos and other types of public body. These phone records will be stored for up to five years, and will include positional data for mobile phone calls.
The implications of this move have yet to be felt. But, as the Telegraph reports today, councils and local authorities already had a fair degree of power when it comes to your phone calls. Overall, according to a report by the worrying sounding Interception of Communications Commissioner Paul Kennedy, the last 9 months of 2006 saw 253,557 applications to listen in on private phone conversations, over 1,600 of which came from local councils, who are apparently authorised to use phone taps to catch "fly-tippers, benefit fraudsters and rogue traders." I'm not sure whether this is funny or tragic. At least the Stasi were out to catch anti-systemic agents, people spreading capitalist literature, Western spies and all that. Are we really bringing in wide ranging surveillance powers to allow the government to track people throwing out their rubbish illegally?
