New anti-terrorism rules 'allow US to spy on British motorists'

[cal04]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/04/21/nspy121.xml&DCMP=EMC-new_21042008

Routine journeys carried out by millions of British motorists can be monitored by authorities in the United States and other enforcement agencies across the world under anti-terrorism rules introduced discreetly by Jacqui Smith.

The discovery that images of cars captured on road-side cameras, and "personal data" derived from them, including number plates, can be sent overseas, has angered MPs and civil liberties groups concerned by the increasing use of "Big Brother" surveillance tactics.

Yesterday, politicians and civil liberties groups accused the Home Secretary of keeping the plans to export pictures secret from Parliament when she announced last year that British anti-terrorism police could access "real time" images from cameras used in the running of London's congestion charge.

A statement by Miss Smith to Parliament on July 17, 2007, detailing the exemptions for police from the 1998 Data Protection Act, did not mention other changes that would permit material to be sent outside the European Economic Area (EEA) to the authorities in the US and elsewhere.

[bushmeister0]

1. They should begin by spying on American drivers first! There are a bunch of really lousy

drivers out there.

[nilram]

2. Not the US -- India

Obviously, they're going to outsource their spying to call centers in India. Or, more likely, North Korea, where the exchange rate is even better and they already have the desired mindset

[no_hypocrisy]

3. That should encourage more mass transit usage.

Oh, wait! Probably cameras in the underground as well.