Big brother is watching.......

French Parliament has passed a law giving more powers for the government to carry out various forms of extra surveillance and intelligence gathering in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo terrorist attacks.

Most of it will probably be internet monitoring and the Internet service providers are kicking up a fuss as well as civil liberties groups, as you would imagine. The government reckon the information gathered fem the Internet will be mainly dates, times and places etc but can they be trusted to work within guidelines without seriously infringing your privacy?

There is also talk of eavesdropping on phone calls with devices that can listen in on calls within a certain radius.

Is this justified, especially if it prevents terrorist attacks from happening or is this a serious infringement of civil liberties?

Would you mind if you knew the government was watching and listening to everything you were doing or do you feel it is necessary to save lives?

Some would argue that if you are doing nothing wrong then you have nothing to worry about. Are they correct or are they missing the point?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-32587377

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-32497034

Regreattably we are already well down that path if we like it or not.

Everytime you go to the bank to alter your account you need to provide proof of who you are and where you live - even though you may have held an account at that bank longer than the cashier you are dealing with has been alive.

Did you know that at this election for the very first time you have had your National Insurance number linked to your address and vote?

How many streets, petrol stations, shops, etc can you walk past without being on CCTV?

Some places you even have to provide finger prints - I know when I went to America they scanned them when you entered the country and I believe something similar occurs when people enters ours (legally that is) - I've certainly seen police with mobile finger print scanners around where I live.

I tend to be too trusting and go down the line that I've done nothing wrong - nor intend too, so what have I to worry about?  Even if a Big Brother society did develop I'm far to far down the food chain to be anyone they would ever be interested in.

On the other hand though I don't suppose theres too many illegal immigrants, benefit frauds, criminals and IS jihadists returning to our infidel country to try and blow us up, who would be too pleased to have to prove who they were all the time - and be tracked and traced because of it.

Just a thought.