Parliament to debate the Privatised Surveillance Society

This Thursday afternoon, in a Commons Backbench debate in my name, MPs will meet for the first time to discuss Internet giant Google, and the threat of a privatised surveillance society.

The debate has been spurred on by the Google Street View saga, where Google cars were found to have been recording Wi-Fi data, including many millions of private emails, passwords, and email addresses.

Regular blog readers will know that I believe we're potentially sleepwalking into a privatised surveillance society.

Ordinary people have no protection against big companies on the Internet – as the recent Street View fiasco has shown. 

I feel very strongly about this, and have been campaigning on it in the House of Commons since I was elected.

I am also unhappy at the limp-wristed role played thus far by the UK Information Commissioner. When its officers first investigated this outrage, they visited Google's headquarters, had a nice chat with its senior executives, went through their computers and decided to do nothing.

By contrast, many other democratic countries, including notably Canada, are now taking legal action to defend the individual right to privacy and civil liberties in their country.

These corporations need to be taught that advancing internet technology is one thing. Disregarding the individual's right to privacy is quite another.

P.S. The House of Commons Backbench Business Committee has agreed to hold this debate on Thursday 28 October on civil liberties, privacy and the Internet. It begins at 2.30pm in Westminster Hall and the debate has been allocated 3 hours.

P.P.S. I have already tabled a number of Parliamentary motions on this issue and others, including on the issue that employees of Google and other Internet companies have illegally hacked into private email accounts, published photos of naked children on Street View, and mapped private Wi-Fi addresses with no consent:

http://edmi.parliament.uk/EDMi/EDMDetails.aspx?EDMID=41720&SESSION=905

http://edmi.parliament.uk/EDMi/EDMDetails.aspx?EDMID=41357&SESSION=905

http://edmi.parliament.uk/EDMi/EDMDetails.aspx?EDMID=41267&SESSION=9054)

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