Letter: Snoop claims

I THINK Allan Massie (Perspective, 4 April) is slightly over the top in his reaction to the coalition’s limited proposals to update the means by which our security services keep us safe.

My understanding is that the state will not be given access to ordinary people’s e-mails or phone conversations, which will still require a warrant. Internet companies will simply be instructed to install hardware to track phone and website traffic to help police stay ahead of terrorists, paedophiles and criminals.

By all means let us beware the setting up of a police state, but what is proposed hardly constitutes an irrevocable slide into some sinister “surveillance society”.

(Dr) John Cameron

St Andrews