They really can't stand us having privacy

EU's judicial cooperation agency Eurojust will take the lead in finding ways to help police and prosecutors across Europe to wiretap computer-to-computer phone conversations enabled by programs such as Skype.

"We will sit together with all member states to see how this can be done technically and legally," Joannes Thuy, Eurojust spokesman told this website.

One part of me recognises that the police could be justified in being able to carry out surveillance such as wire tapping as part of a criminal investigation, the rest of me sees how these powers are abused on a regular basis to the extent that most of us seem to be under surveillance most of the time.

If the police are investigating a particular person and listen in to the calls made by that person then I don't have a problem. I do have a problem however when they listen in to all calls in the off chance that they may overhear something criminal being discussed. Unfortunately, if they manage to crack skype (and similar) calls, I don't trust them not to listen in as a matter of routine, or for trivial 'offences' such as incorrectly filling in a school application form or dropping a chocolate wrapper.