Police, intelligence agencies and other public English organs asked more than 500 thousand accesses to confidential and personal information in 2008. That is equal to spy one in each 78 people in the whole United Kingdom.

There were 1500 daily requests, totaling 504.073 requests for approval to access private e-mail and phone data.

That number represents an increase of 44% in the requests if compared to the last two years. The government tried to reduce those requests last year throwing an use guide, but the difference didn’t arrive to 3%.

The reason for the uncontrolled use of those information would be the search for terrorists, problem that it worries the whole country there are some years. And those organs are protected by the Action of Regulation, in other words, they make that legally.

That act, however, doesn’t allow the access to the content of the messages and connections, just allow showing who sent and who received such contacts, as well as it dates and hour of those information.

The site Telegraph informs that in April the government declared that it would be thinking to proceed with its plans of tracking every phone call, email, SMS and site visited by each one in the country with the same objective of combating the terrorism, but up to now nothing was concluded.

Via: Times.