Web Surfing, Email, and Text Data Sought

IS THE CHOICE SECURITY OVER PRIVACY?

A British newspaper is reporting that a proposal has been put forth by the British government to keep data on all Internet surfing, text messages, and emails sent over a year's time.

Directly from the MSNBC-reported story:

"The report, which did not cite sources, said that phone companies and broadband providers would be ordered to store the information themselves for a year for security services’ “real-time” inspection under the plan."

The Telegraph, a high-respected British newspaper, goes on to say that the specific content of these media would not be recorded or kept; however, the actual phone numbers, Internet sites, and text origination and destination data would be kept.

"And the plan would reach into social networking for the first time, The Telegraph reported, allowing security services to get information about direct messages between users of Facebook, Twitter and similar sites, and even between players in online video games."

This is a link to the story:

World News - Report: UK anti-terror plan to sweep up email, phone, online records:

Is this being done here now, and if not, could there be a similar effort in the US? Is there any similarity between this initiative and SOPA and PIPA, two Internet bills in Congress that were shot down a few weeks ago? And finally, would you rather keep your technology use private or stay safe?