A long way down the page at slashdot is a comment that points out that in fact, according to the linked BBC article, they're not talking about storing or monitoring content, just dates, times, locations, etc.
It's also not just a change to how they handle email information--the same changes will be taking place with cell phone call information. Basically the government is stepping in to personally handle the job of storing all that information that has up to now been done by the ISPs themselves.
Still cause for concern, but not as big of a change as the title and comments make it out to be.
That's a good reason to use a discussion system that functions like HN instead of slashdot--I didn't find the comment pointing that out on slashdot until skimming through probably 100 comments.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/7671046.stm
It's also not just a change to how they handle email information--the same changes will be taking place with cell phone call information. Basically the government is stepping in to personally handle the job of storing all that information that has up to now been done by the ISPs themselves.
Still cause for concern, but not as big of a change as the title and comments make it out to be.
That's a good reason to use a discussion system that functions like HN instead of slashdot--I didn't find the comment pointing that out on slashdot until skimming through probably 100 comments.