They bugged every single new car going into Northern Ireland? I guess the British are willing to infringe on pretty much anyone's privacy in order to catch terrorists.

Have you seen the articles about tracking all web, email and mobile communication in the UK?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7671046.stm

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Governmentcitizensandrights/UKgo...

(via /.)

Yes. I hope they people responsible are hanged.

They might say the same about us after our warrantless wiretapping episode. That outcry was one big waste.

Public transportation in my city now has cameras installed. Maybe the british are just a decade ahead.

Indeed, though I can't believe they had the resources to bug every single car, let alone listen to the transmissions, assuming keyword recognition or similar wasn't about.

They didn't need to listen to all transmissions. They knew which cars they wanted to listen to. Their problem was how to bug them, because presumably cars were bought through a 3rd party and with immediate, on a spot delivery.

They might have been able to bug all the cars that went through their dock, and then recover bugs that went into cars that weren't important.

Or just leave them in all the cars until one of those filthy proles... err citizens commits a crime.

See, this is what the US needs: a secret service that doesn't destroy people's privacy or break in in the middle of the night but actually gets its job done.

Don't kid yourself the UK is one of the most heavily monitors countries in the word. What with all the cameras they have there.

Yay, Northern Ireland!

In! Your! Recent! Comments! You! Seem! To! Like! Exclamation! Points!

I like to spice things up, since it's the internet and difficult to convey tone in a string of characters. In real life I speak in a monotone drone.

Me! Too! ;-)

Sorry, off-topic: How do you people manage to get -2 points? Not that I would like to myself, but I can't see downvote/bury/etc buttons anywhere...

There's a minimum karma requirement: http://ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html

what?

Sorry, I live there.

Me too. Anyone else?