Under the guise of anti-terrorism efforts, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith hints that the government should have access to sites such as reddit, digg, facebook, YouTube, eBay, and any other site that offers free accounts.

The plans to create a large database of emails and phone calls were controversial enough, but the new plan is to make any website offering free accounts fair game for the relevant authorities.

Smith says in a speech that websites that offers a free account “are a potential hotbed for terrorist activity”, as the activity on them is not tracked.

She wants the relevant authorities to be able to track potential terrorists’ actions, although only names and locations would be logged, not the content of the message.

So while there isn’t going to be a huge database where all your digital communications live, you might want to think twice about putting up an image of Osama Bin Laden as your profile picture for comedy effect.

So, these sites are hotbeds for terrorists?  I’m sure the terrorists on facebook make sure to post what they’re doing before going out and blowing up a building.

It’s equally stupid to keep a log of people’s names and locations, but not the content of the message.  That is, unless the government just wants you in a database with no record of what you did so that you cannot mount a defense against the government.

You also might want to put up as many photos of Osama bin Laden as you can, along with photos of the prophet Mohammed.  Flood the databases as much as you can.

If you want to prevent the creation of such a database, you need to lodge your protest now.