[Unch]

I find it quite amusing that people (or more accurately - the media) are so up in arms about this when, in actual fact, the Government has been spying on us all and reading our emails for years.

There are many great bits of legislation that allow the government to trample over our privacy and online rights, some of which even contradict other laws such as the data protection act. This has all been going on for quite some time.

Under the RIP act, law enforcement agencies can force you to disclose any private keys used for encryption. Failure to do so is an offence that can carry a prison term. Worse, disclosing any such request to anyone is a criminal offence that could be punished by imprisonment (in fact, the maximum term for telling someone is higher than for refusing to provide the key!)