Britons have protested against the government's plan to monitor social-networking sites used by almost half the British population.
Protestors accused the British Home Office of excessive snooping on the private lives of law-abiding citizens, The Independent reported.
UK security services believe technological improvements and the widespread use of social networking sites such as MySpace, Bebo and Facebook have created a loophole for terrorists and criminal gangs to exploit.
The newly announced plan will monitor all social networking sites and save the collected data on a database called 'Big Brother'.
There is an EU directive for monitoring emails and internet usage, but it does not cover social networking sites.
"Social networking sites, such as MySpace or Bebo, are not covered by the directive," said Home Office minister, Vernon Coaker.
"That is one reason why the Government are looking at what we should do about the intercept modernization program because there are certain aspects of communications which are not covered by the directive."
"Plans to monitor our phone and email records threaten to be the most expensive snooper's charter in history," said Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Tom Brake.
"It is deeply worrying that they now intend to monitor social networking sites which contain very sensitive data like sexual orientation, religious beliefs and political views," he added.
"Given the Government's disastrous record with large IT projects and data security, it is likely that data will leak out of every memory stick, port and disk drive when they start monitoring Facebook, Bebo and MySpace."
Policy director of the Liberty human rights group Isabella Sankey referred to the proposed central communications database as a 'terrifying prospect' that "would allow the Government to record every email, text message and phone call and would turn millions of innocent Britons into permanent suspects."
This is while a Home Office spokeswoman said the Government was "not interested in the content of emails, texts, conversations or social networking sites."
"We have been clear that communications revolution has been rapid in this country and the way in which we collect communications data needs to change so law enforcement agencies can maintain their ability to tackle terrorism and gather evidence," she added.
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