The arguments to this point are more constructive than I was expecting.

Yes I can see how you would wish to defend your privacy, Information on your web usage, is already stored and can be handed to the authorities on demand (in the UK). This can be justified for billing and all manor of things, it is generally gathered as Radius Logs. There is no reason why this can’t be done for emails, it will just look like a phone bill.

You are one of many millions of people talking over the net so why do you feel your communications will draw attention? I feel that I can trust the UK government to respect my privacy.

Let me give you a good example of what can be done.

The prime place for illegal activity to take place is on news groups.

What if it was legal to record every single transaction on a news group server, if an illegal group is formed why not see who is downloading/uploading illegal material and focus investigations on those people.

The technology is available to do that and I feel the advantages far out way the disadvantages.

I can say the same for chat rooms, record everything that happens on a chat room server. There was a case in the UK where a you girl had arranged to meet an older man on line. There was no trace of what had been agreed, I do not recall what happened but I don’t believe the outcome was positive.

Imagine how much that would increase the survival chances of that individual if you know where they had agreed to meet, tied up with the identity of the individual via the Radius logs from the ISP.

This subject is serious; saving lives is not a game.