Internet anonimity is not a god given right which trumps security - we've only had the internet recently and authorities were always able to monitor phone calls before then. People don't appreciate the seriousness of the islamic terrorist threat - maybe a few more 9/11 and 7/7s will convince them.

Frederick, London, UK

Another reason to kick out labour. As a PW Telecoms consultant in the 80s, the proposals are a useless waste of money. I am a legitimate & tired old businessman - with 7 emails, 2 x ISPs, 4 x mbl. tels., skype & multiple messenger services. The cost to monitor me is prohibitive.

Richard, Bucharest,

1 step closer to the orwellian big brother police state and who says conspiracy theorists are fantasists....this sort of thing should be stopped next they'll want 24 hr survelliance in my living room they'll never be happy 'til we're all micro chipped like dogs.....

del, orwellianville,

NOVEMBER 5TH - PEACEFUL PROTESTS

We have to start taking action before they criminalise that as well.

Do you have to prove your identity to use a public phone box? Will they see that as a "loophole" to be closed?

NO POLICE STATE!

Simon, Brentwood, UK

We're turning into a police state at a rapid rate. This proposal is absolutely unacceptable. Jacqui Smith should be ashamed of herself, because by the time she's finished with us, we'll have no more freedoms worth defending.

Anna Langley, Cambridge, United Kingdom

"The police are not your friend. The government is your enemy." When I started saying this some five years ago, I was considered paranoid. Now this opinion is rapidly becoming mainstream. Always ahead of my time. Decided on your emigration destination yet?

Andrew Milner, Karuizawa, Japan

Is this something dreamt up by New Labour 'Stink Tanks', or is this an 'order' from the Kommie Kommissars from the EU, and ex-stazi fellow travellers of old East Germany?

This appears to be only happening in the UK at the moment. Is it going to be implemented in other EU states?

Uncle Vanya, Chelmslford, England

At present they are "only" demanding to know who called/e-mailed/texted whom and for how long and where from, etc. Encryption will not disguise this. Anonymous pathways (such as TOR) would likely make their task impossible, however.

Charles, Charlottesville,

First I got Skype to get away from my mobile company illegally spying on me. And now THIS? Myabe this will finally force Skype to have a call center with live people for a change.

Tom, Kansas City, US

What will be the next step?Scanning people's brain to trace their thought pattern?

kamur, London, UK

This is just a strawman. They need to 'prove' it's impossible to monitor the data on the internet.

The EU are already planning to make it an offence to criticise the EU on blogs etc.

Answer? Ban the internet! "Will no-one think of the tiny children!"

Colin Soames, London,

This along with the medical database, mass collection of dna samples from 12 - 18 year olds, police records now being kept for 100 years, the levels CRB information held, CCTV etc..
Is this what the net means? I seriously fear for my children.

Simon, London, England

Let's face it...the UK is slowly becoming East Germany... No wonder all able people are emigrating!

Stephen, Pontypridd, Wales

I agree with Kevin !
Let's get real. The govrnment"lost" all the data with claiments details. The police are looking for a harddrive "lost" with service people addresses on...the list goes on. This much information is bad in teh gov's hands. Also, lest we forget, states go bad. Germany 1930?

Mark Weir, Nottingham, UK

This is what happens when a government uses the standard channels of communication to spy on its own people. An alternative presents itself and people flee the telecom companies in order to talk freely, without being spied upon.

E, Winnetka, California, USA

With this sort of legislation in place you'd be mad to start any sort of business in the UK. All it'd need was one of your rivals to pay a bent civil servant to find out all your company secrets. What a foul country nulabour is turning Britain into.

Kevin, Workington, Cumbria

The genie is out of the bottle, the authorities will never be able to monitor it all. Perhaps sifting through zillions of mails and calls would provide the many alternative industry jobs Mr Brown soon hopes to create? If so we could probably solve the entire unemployment problem in the 3rd world.

vigilaire, england,

Yes, this is Orwellian. But people seem to forget that George Orwell's real name was ... Eric Blair!

Lizzie Walls , edinburgh,

Encryption invalidates much of this technology despite government claims of counteraction. With a strong password it is impossible to break. The UK response is to make it an offence not to reveal the password, hardly a counterattack to terrorists. Read Beyond Fear by security expert Bruce Schneier.

D James, Lancashire, UK

VoIP data just like email and visiting websites have a traceable path. The problem is it's not as easy to do as intercepting landline communication where a code is suffixed onto target phones to reroute and record.
Recording audio is also a problem but not insurmountable.

Paul, London, Great Britain

The SIP standard of VoIP uses set allocation of ports.

I happily use VoIPStunt & other Betamax VoIP providers along with Vyke and Sipgate. Have tried the toy town Skype but prefer proper a VoIP service and ATA you use without PC too.

Traditional Telcos pass calls through VoIP & the likes of 18185

C Parkes, Birmingham, UK

This is such a load of Tosh! Any one with a basic bit of computer know how can encypt th calls,e-mail etc.
I never thought it would be Labour that would want to monitor us all night and day.Why not just chip us like cats and dogs and be done with it.

Simon, Bristol, England

Another "solution" to the problem of "terrorists" might be for the US/UK stop interfering politically and militarily in innumerable countries throughout the world. And to stop supporting and propping up leaders who transform into "brutal dictators" when they are no longer needed. Might be cheaper.

Perry Stalsis, Toronto, Canada

I'm not too worried. There's no way that it'll ever work. If they can't build a simple booking-in system for the NHS how on earth will they be able to pull this off?!

David, Bradford, England

when I speak to my friend in France on gtalk I keep hearing odd squeaking noises are MI5 employing mice? now they know all our secret plans about family and the weather and our medical complaints

peter c, Devizes, Wessex

They haven't a hope.

"they need to break the code and there are people who can do that" - john, middlesex

And what "code" is that then?

Alastair Johnson, Alicante, Spain

This is madness. The Government will become the enemy. People will become generally obstructive and looking to break any law they can. The Police will receive no cooperation. Is the public going to put up with knowing that a visit to, for example, a pro hunting website, could label them a terrorist?

Jon, manchester, uk

I'm sure many wannabe terrorists are wise to the fact they can encrypt internet voice calls as I'm sure drug barons already do. Smith needs to wake up, go back to basics and put feet on the streets rather than relying on flawed technology that Labour spends so much money on to no good effect.

Mike, alicante, spain

When they can listen to every call and record every aspect of our lives, won't we all hate and despise the 'powers that be'? - East Germany collapsed economically under the cost of such a tightly observed society. How long before it's hacked?

Bill Bird, Wallasey, Great Britain

absolutely well said Robert from Formby.
totally agree. the biggest problem and danger in the UK comes from those services supposed to support and protect. they same ones that actually want to control and record every detail od their subjects us
NO MORE POWERS AND RESCIND THE EXISTING SPY POWERS

peter jones, moscow,

Break WHAT code? Communications applications like Skype, MSN Messenger, AIM and Yahoo all use IP 'ports', so its easy enough to maintain a watch on those ports. This just goes to show how completely ignorant the security services are of technology, apart from when it comes to losing their laptops.

Julian, London, UK

The greatest danger to the people of this country comes from the government and the police. The threat from terrorists is tiny in comparison.

Robert, Formby, GB

I know; the inability to record every word we might let go under our breath also has me in tears...
Makes you wonder how crimes were solved before the Internet came along to provide bucket-fulls of circumstantial evidence so we can be successfully prosecuted for what we might say we'd like to do...

Molly McGuire, Cork, Hibernia

This is perfect. We have had technology that can make our communications secure for many years; whilst most is done by legitimate people the criminal element will surely know about this.

How can the police keep track of million of calls on the internet?

joe, edinburgh, scotland

they need to break the code and there are people who can do that

john, middlesex,

So much for that super database costing a zillion £££ in the article you posted 12 hours ago...

Farrukh, Woking,