A Dystopian Future EU Surveillance Society?

Guardian article on EU and the surveillance society

A chilling, Orwellian prospect.

Big Brother is thriving in Britain, which is increasingly a surveillance state.

Already the most spied-upon people in the world, Britons risk forfeiting even more privacy unless new restrictions are put in place
New powers are needed to combat a culture of "pervasive" surveillance that has seen the UK become the most spied upon country in the world, the Lords have said. The UK is now watched by more about four million CCTV cameras and details of seven per cent of the population is held in the National DNA Database (NDNAD) – more than any other country, according to chairman of the House of Lords Constitution Committee Lord Goodlad. At the same time national databases designed to hold personal information on nearly every UK citizen are being set up across Whitehall, from the NHS Care Records Service to the ID cards National Identity Register, according to a report by the committee released today. Meanwhile businesses and banks are gathering data on the public from CCTV, web browsing behaviour, CRM systems and tracking the use of loyalty cards, the report says, adding that the government also wants access to this data. "Every time we make a telephone call, send an email, browse the internet, or even walk down our local high street, our actions may be monitored and recorded," the report said.
Read article at businessweek.com

Why is the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain one of the UK public bodies with the power to monitor people's private communications?

Why is the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain one of the 653 public bodies and quangos in the UK that have the power to monitor people's private communications and carry out surveillance? - See http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2000/ukpga_20000023_en_12#sch1

Pretty sinister, in my opinion...)o: