In October, British newspapers reported that Prime Minister Gordon Brown's government was working on a plan to monitor every phone call, Web-site visit, text message and email in the country, entering the information into a vast database that would be used to catch terrorists, pedophiles and scam artists. Dominic Grieve, the shadow home secretary (that is, a member of the Conservative opposition), warned that "any suggestion of the government using existing powers to intercept communications data without public discussion is going to sound extremely sinister." The Sunday Times reported a "fierce backlash inside Whitehall,"...