Eyes on the U.K.: Britain's surveillance state.

• Author: Sullum, Jacob
• Position: Citings - Brief article

THE UNITED KINGDOM already has more surveillance cameras per capita than any other country. Now the British government reportedly plans to monitor every phone call, website visit, text message, and email, entering the information into an enormous database that would be used to catch terrorists, pedophiles, and scam artists.

In early October, when several British newspapers revealed the heretofore secret scheme, Dominic Grieve, the shadow home secretary, called it "a substantial shift in the powers of the state to obtain information on individuals" and warned that "any suggestion of the government using existing powers to intercept communications data without public discussion is going to sound extremely sinister." Privacy activist Michael Parker told the Daily Express: "It is a shocking intrusion into privacy. This is stalking. If an individual carried out this sort of snooping, it would be a crime."

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith later gave a speech in which she said the electronic dragnet...