liberty central's hero of the week: Richard Thomas, the information commissioner
Bouquets to the information commissioner, who has stuck his head above the parapet this week on the subject of state surveillance.
Not content with ordering the government to reveal details of two reviews into the contentious ID cards scheme, Richard Thomas reiterated his concerns that the government's new communications super database would makes suspects of us all. He described a culture of "creeping surveillance", that had gone "too far, too fast" and threatens to undermine our way of life.
Mr Thomas dismissed Jacqui Smith's assurances, that access to the database – which would log every phone call, e-mail and internet site visitedy internet users – would not provide access to the content of these communications pointing out that.
"That A has telephoned B on a particular date from a particular location is actually quite intrusive," he said. "If an MP logged on to a site selling Viagra, that tells you quite a lot. If a 16-year-old girl goes on to a website about abortion that tells you an awful lot about her too. I don't think there's a black-and-white distinction between traffic data and content."
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