I wonder when Brits will be required to have tracking chips implanted in all newborns or they can't take their child home from the hospital?? What has happened to England??

Brent, RR, USA

Civil disobedience is the key here In every email put C4, Bin laden, Iraq and nuclear fission. The government will have to read through trillions of emails. That will stop them. Oh and Gordon you've got my IP address send your goons round after Ive had breakfast.

Len, Oban, UK

The UK needs a popular revolution now. its time the power to take charge of our own lives was taken back from government who realistically are only interested in the public when it suits them and their jobs.

mike, dunfermline, uk

Any tech-savy person with a little cash can set up email access such that absolutely no one in this country can know anything other than that they are accessing a specific server. If that server is not in the UK...

No chance of catching the big boys in crime or terrorism this way.

Mark Gordon, Slough, UK

There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment. How often, or on what system, the Thought Police plugged in on any individual wire was guesswork. It was even conceivable that they watched everybody all the time. ~ George Orwell. 1984

Edward, New Orleans, Louisana, USA

Has anyone actually considered the consequences for business & industry in this country of having a searchable database that shows all business relationships - I can't imagine that the financial industry will stay in London after their ability to keep their clients business safe is compromised.

Peter, London,

It's an open invitation for commercial espionage - just think of all those faceless, unaccountable quangocrats just waiting for a second income from the likes of some unfriendly foreign intelligence agency - who won't even have to intercept communications any more...

Peter, London,

whatever else we do, we need to remember this when election time comes around, confront the doorstep callers with it and demand that the powers that be TAKE AWAY the powers from the councils who seem set fair to ruin our lives, what more do we have to endure?

Rose, Ryde, UK

We don't need a referendum do we?. (Adam, London.)The elections will be here soon. That's the time to remember all this.

Stuart, Chesterfield, Derbyshire

This will definitely be abused by police, council workers etc. to snoop on love rivals/partners/people they dislike.

Jeff, London,

Can we, as the electorate, please have a referendum on whether we want this continuing erosion of our privacy and liberty? There must be better and more proportionate ways of tackling terrorism than making us all suspects.

Adam, London, UK

I worry for businesses with highly confidential data and for personal privacy reasons. Its just far too big a risk to even think about putting in force. The costings of this would be extortionate. How would they go about checking the data? Any system you can envisage is heavily flawed.

Chris, Southend, England

So, the EU directs the UK to do this, despite it being a fundamental breach of Human Rights legislation - espoused by the EU and accepted by the UK. What a farcical roundabout. Better if we could be sure if our 'masters' were truthful in all they told us.

Bill Q, Derby,

Simple to circumvent...... every member of the "team" has the password for the same webmail account. messages are created and saved as draft emails inside the account, other members log in to the same account and read the draft messages....no mail is ever sent so can't be intercepted

Sam, Woking, UK

There are arguments for and against this measure, but little doubt that it is a fundamental violation of human rights. I am sure that in these tough times, £25 million pounds could be much more effectively spent than in yet another step towards an Orwellian autocracy. Counter terrorism? I think not

Alasdair , London,

OK just start encrypting your emails

bill, ely,

How can we trust the government, which keeps losing personal data, with this kind of information?

Who is responsible for keeping data which is not held on UK mail servers?

People can always use social networking sites/forums to circumvent the email system.

James Gumpert, Southport,

You are in e-mail correspondence with someone who, unknown to you, later turns out to be a criminal. Without the content of the e-mail, how do you prove to the authorities that all you were discussing was the football?

Sean, Surrey, UK

"Under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, privacy is a fundamental right" , yet the Police say they can snoop my hard drive. Privacy? Like East Germans had privacy with the Stasi?

michael, kensington, london

This is a singularly purposeless and expensive exercise against terrorism. Why gather the partial detailsof the emails, phone and mobile records of a population of 60 million, when you should be collecting all the content of the few thousand who are definitely known to be involved with terrorism?

Edward Bancroft, Colchester,

Can someone explain to me why local Councils need these powers. I can see the argument for the security services. Councils have already misused the surveillance powers they were given.

Jon , manchester,