Surveillance society

The British government is at it again. Now they'll be using our mobile phones to listen to our conversations, even when they're sitting in our pockets, apparently inactive:

The home office is seeking to include a potentially controversial new provision in an upcoming extension of the UK Terrorism Act. A section of the draft tabled in the House of Commons last week, expected to see first reading on Tuesday, will include the stipulation that all mobile phones sold in the UK will enable authorities to remotely activate the handset microphone for law enforcement purposes.

Effectively, all mobile customers will be carrying 'bugs' that can be used to eavesdrop on their daily activities and interactions.

The feature, "Passive Listening Mode" is apparently already available, but inactive, in a number of brands of phone and will shortly become mandatory.

Deputy UK privacy commissioner Rila P. Loofs said Saturday "The commissioner is very concerned about this provision. It leaves the door open to serious abuse of citizens' privacy rights and will rightly be seen as yet another step forward toward the surveillance society. How will we be sure our phones aren't helping somebody to eavesdrop on our private conversations?".

Because terrorists apparently aren't smart enough to take out the batteries when they're hatching their evil plots.