I have no problem with communications being monitored when there is a court warrant for a specific investigation. After all, this is a function that the police and security services are expected to perform. Wholesale monitoring of communications, and retention of everyone's private information is another, completely different, matter. It reeks of fishing expeditions, and should be something that governments have no hand in - it should be handled by the appropriate services (i.e. police and MI5) and overseen by the judiciary (not politicians), who are impartial, and not subject to such influences as the election cycle, party loyalty, and political donations.
I wish I could upvote this a million times. The problem is indeed not having the capability, but responsible use thereof. At the moment, abuse of such wide reaching powers have eroded trust in government and law enforcement to somewhere below zero. There is no way ANY government should be able to assign more powers to law enforcement until such time as they have proven they can be trusted with it.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
