Big brother has arrived!

Last Sunday the Sunday Times asserted that the government proposes to demand all mobile phone sellers to see the passport of anyone who buys a phone. Is there any doubt that the numbers of the passport and phone will have to be recorded, and the details included on the mega database they will hold of all citizens?

Mobile networks will have a record of all calls, and even in the absence of making calls the network apparently is able to locate the position of the phone. So, leave the phone at home, or lend it to someone else, if you don't want them to know where you are and have been. (Either could give you an alibi, but you will also have to use someone else's car or use public transport, because with the proposed satellite traffic charging scheme and trafficmaster cameras they will know where your car has been.)

One possible reassurance is that the scheme will be so complicated, and the problems so great, that it may never take place in the foreseeable future because of the state of the economy, and by the time it ever becomes a reality this lot will have been replaced by a government more concerned about personal liberty.

As usual, the two main concerns with the accumulation of required data are the security and the political hazards.

This government has shown itself unable to keep confidential data secure, - it is lost or mislaid on such a regular basis that we barely notice the sequence of bungles.

Secondly that the government will use the data for political purposes - when the Tories raised a medical matter with the agreement of the family concerned, Blair accessed and quoted publicly from the patient's record without any permission.