Sharon Ball

The article in today’s Guardian newspaper is very worrying and as a mobile phone user carrying out council business in the city worries me and I agree with our local Bath MP Don Foster who has made the following statement today.

Commenting on today’s revelation in The Guardian newspaper that for the last three years tens of thousands of people travelling through Bath have been tracked by Bluetooth, city MP Don Foster said that he was “extremely worried” by the news.

 Don said, “To learn that for the last three years researchers from the University of Bath have been monitoring people moving around the city without their consent is of great concern.

 “While the researchers claim not to have studied individuals directly, the fact is that it is very possible to do so, and over the last three years the behaviour of any number of individuals could have been tracked without them knowing, and for no good reason.

 “You only need to be carrying a piece of everyday technology, such as a mobile, and you could have been monitored in the city centre.  This is yet another infringement of our civil liberties and another step closer to the “big brother” state. 

 “Perhaps this system can be used effectively and anonymously, but we need to have a guarantee that all data is made anonymous before it is analysed.  At the moment we do not have that guarantee, and we don’t know what data has been collected over the last three years.

 “This news, coupled with all the recent Government data losses and the costly and unnecessary ID Card scheme, is yet another example of the erosion of civil liberties within Britain.”