Is this a private joke?

Just when you thought internet snooping had stalled, we find that the government has created the Communications Capabilities Directorate (CCD) as a structure to implement the £2bn Interception Modernisation Programme (IMP) see here. The idea is for communications providers to maintain giant databases of everything their customers do online, including email, social networking, web browsing and making VoIP calls. They want providers to process the mass of data to link it to individuals, to make it easier for authorities to access.

The service providers foresee immense technical and civil libertarian problems but government is sanguine and, by the way, this is the fourth European Data Protection Day. In the UK the Information Commissioner's Office is supporting the initiative with activities to teach children, and their teachers, about the importance of privacy. The Information Commissioner has strongly criticised the IMP in the past, see here. I doubt he has a sense of humour.