The date is drawing near, and the blogs are abuzz not just in the UK but everywhere. Starting March 15, all ISPs in the United Kingdom will have to retain all records of any email sent or received, for at least 12 months. This, along with rumors that the Home Office is pushing for laws that would allow them to hack into citizens’ computers, clinches it: those guys are insane.

The controversial law is aimed at increasing national security and preventing terrorism. Ever since former President Bush popularized the notion of removing our freedoms to protect them (a curious idea if I ever heard one), it seems like Western nations have had a free-for-all in heavy-handed laws like this one. The plan, estimated to cost somewhere between GBP25 and GBP70 million, is widely criticized by the industry. The most obvious criticism is that maintaining such a huge database of personal information is in effect, an open invitation to hackers to try to gain access to it. And you can be sure that there will be attempts, and eventually, there will be a successful one. Naturally, the Home Office will take every precaution to prevent the data from falling into the wrong hands. But when dealing with such a database, all the precautions in the world are inadequate–and I’d be willing to wager that the attempts will start almost as soon as the database goes live. And I’ll go further and speculate that a successful hack will take place within the first year.

In a recent article in the Daily Mail, the Earl of Northesk, who is on the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee, said “This degree of storage is equivalent to having access to every second, every minute, every hour of your life.”

According to reports, the contents of emails would not be retained, but only data regarding who is emailing whom, and at what times. But this alone will not satisfy the appetite of the government information-gatherers, there is also plans afoot for something called the Interception Modernisation Programme, which creates one huge, central database, which not only includes details on emails, but also text messages, phone calls, and web sites visited.

Besides the obvious violation of freedom and privacy, this whole school of thought is a disaster of epic proportions waiting to happen. It’s technologically impractical, extremely risky, and one of the worst ideas I’ve seen come out of government in a long time.