UK Internet Group: Surveillance Program in Works

Every email to your child. Every status update for your friends. Every message to your mistress.

An official with Britain’s Internet Service Providers’ Association says the government is preparing proposals for a nationwide electronic surveillance network that could potentially keep track of every message sent by any Brit to anyone at any time.

Similar plans were abandoned in 2008 following a public outcry. But the Service Providers’ Association’s James Blessing says the government appears to be “reintroducing it on a slightly different format.”

Britain’s Home Office declined to comment on the particulars of any such move, but a spokesman said Sunday that it would not involve prying into the content of emails or voice conversations.