Web Brother is watching

The long-awaited European Cybercrime Convention was given the go-ahead by the
EU’s Council of Ministers last week. The convention will outlaw the
dissemination of child pornography on the Internet, as well as the propagation
of racist and xenophobic ideas. It also allows European security agencies to
ignore data protection laws when sharing information about a suspect’s computer
use. But Yaman Akdeniz, director of Cyber-Rights and Cyber-Liberties UK, warns
that such powers could lead to an “Orwellian nightmare”.