The British are doing this out in the open. Scary stuff.

Excerpts from article[ Fri Dec 30, 2006 8:13 PM ET]:

“…While the U.S. government, supported by majorities in national polls, is ignoring laws on oversight of homeland spying, the British are developing systems to literally follow, photographically, every citizen on his or her daily rounds. Big Brother, the fictional invention of a British writer, George Orwell, will be real and functional within a year. The first step, scheduled to be operational next March, will use thousands of cameras linked to government databases to photograph every vehicle entering or leaving London, driving on major highways or stopping for gasoline -- and checking those movements against driver's licenses and other government information over two- and five-year periods…”

“…The system, originally planned as a crime-prevention and detection system, has been in development for 25 years. In Britain, as well as in the United States, police quickly realized that such innovations as automatic cash machines and EZ-pass readers provided a rough map of many people's lives -- and led to thousands upon thousands of criminal arrests. But there is no doubt that terrorism incidents and threats will speed development and make what were once considered unacceptable invasions of privacy more acceptable to the British -- and, one day, to Americans as well…”

Link to the whole article:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ucrr/bigbrotherisrealthistime;_ylt=As.pl_U6_FpuX...