Colette Douglas Home is right to worry about the level of surveillance to which we are routinely subjected and her points about ubiquitous CCTV are well made ("It is time we stood up to the Big Brother mentality", The Herald, February 21).

However, there is a greater threat to privacy than visible cameras: the hidden records of the database state. Alas, it now appears that the Home Office is preparing to reincarnate its previously abandoned Intercept Modernisation Programme, in the form of a Communications Capabilities Development Programme (CCDP).

It is believed the CCDP will provide the Government with access, via internet service providers, to long-lasting records of all our internet communication, whether by email, social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter (including private direct messages) and multi- player games.

This is on top of the records that are already retained about our telephone use.

The UK Government's belief in its entitlement to snoop on all of us has got completely out of hand in recent years and is entirely contrary to the spirit of Article 12 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which both declare the right to privacy of correspondence.

There are occasions when it is necessary for the police to intercept communications as part of criminal investigations but these should be executed on a targeted basis with specific authorisation from the courts.

Routine unwarranted mass surveillance has no legitimate part to play in the workings of a modern liberal democracy.

Dr Geraint Bevan,

NO2ID Scotland,

3e Grovepark Gardens,

Glasgow.