The Sunday Times had this news this morning. I thought at first it must be an April Fool's joke but it's been on the BBC news as well.
The government will be able to monitor the calls, emails, texts and website visits of everyone in the UK under new legislation set to be announced soon.
Internet firms will be required to give intelligence agency GCHQ access to communications on demand, in real time.
The last Labour government had thought about doing this before but there was considerable opposition including from the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats. So it looks as if this government has completely changed its mind.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-17576745
For more on this. There's a video clip of the Conservative backbencher David Davis which is worth watching. He has criticised the proposal as unnecessary.
The authorities already can intercept calls etc if they can provided they get permission from a magistrate so why do they need this?
It looks as if the information collected would be who rang/emailed who and when, and the website addresses of every website visited rather than what was said or written. They would have to get permission to get the detail of what was said or written.
It's supposed to be necessary in the fight against terrorism and serious crime. Serious crime covers many things. Some obvious like drugs, traffficking. It covers money laundering. I as an accountant have to comply with money laundering rules and I know that money laundering covers anyone who fiddles their tax.
Next, we will have the Post Office having to open all letters to make a record of who has written them and who they are writing to.
Then CCTV cameras will be positioned along all roads and in buildings to see who is talking to whom.
I think that it may be true that it is happening on some level already, but it is still shit. I understand that they are worried about terrorism, but FFS, prying on peoples' emails and voicemails. Who would do that? Oh wait! ... 
Yep it sure would!
