‘UK uses despots’ surveillance system’

A British campaign group has said that the British government plans to install the same surveillance system used by despots to spy on its own people. Privacy International, a UK-based group campaigning against intrusions into private life by the governments, announced that the British government plans to install the same kind of mass surveillance system used by despots like former dictators of Egypt and Libya, Hosni Mubarak and Muammar Gaddafi. “Yet in the midst of a recession, the government wants to spend billions of pounds peering into our private lives with an intensity that would make even the most ruthless tabloid journalist blush,” said Eric King, head of research at Privacy International. The campaign group also revealed that Britain itself has exported surveillance equipment to despotic regimes. The group said the equipment exported to the despotic regimes by Britain included “IMSI catchers,” devices which look like normal mobile phone masts and identify phone users. The equipment also included software allowing intelligent agents to remotely turn on the microphone and camera on any individual’s phone. Privacy International slammed the British government’s proposals to employ the same kind of surveillance scheme in Britain, saying, “This is a system that has no place in a country that would call itself free and democratic.”