BBC NEWS
Plan to monitor all internet use
By Dominic Casciani
BBC News home affairs reporter
Communications firms are being asked to record all internet contacts
between people as part of a modernisation in UK police surveillance
tactics.
The home secretary scrapped plans for a database but wants details to be
held and organised for security services.
The new system would track all e-mails, phone calls and internet use,
including visits to social network sites.
The Tories said the Home Office had "buckled under Conservative
pressure" in deciding against a giant database.
Announcing a consultation on a new strategy for communications data and
its use in law enforcement, Jacqui Smith said there would be no single
government-run database.
“ Communications data is an essential tool for law enforcement agencies
to track murderers and paedophiles, save lives and tackle crime ”
Jacqui Smith Home Secretary
But she also said that "doing nothing" in the face of a communications
revolution was not an option.
The Home Office will instead ask communications companies - from
internet service providers to mobile phone networks - to extend the
range of information they currently hold on their subscribers and
organise it so that it can be better used by the police, MI5 and other
public bodies investigating crime and terrorism.
Ministers say they estimate the project will cost £2bn to set up, which
includes some compensation to the communications industry for the work
it may be asked to do.
"Communications data is an essential tool for law enforcement agencies
to track murderers, paedophiles, save lives and tackle crime," Ms Smith
said.
"Advances in communications mean that there are ever more sophisticated
ways to communicate and we need to ensure that we keep up with the
technology being used by those who seek to do us harm.
"It is essential that the police and other crime fighting agencies have
the tools they need to do their job, However to be clear, there are
absolutely no plans for a single central store."
'Contact not content'
Communication service providers (CSPs) will be asked to record internet
contacts between people, but not the content, similar to the existing
arrangements to log telephone contacts.
REASONS TO CHANGE WHAT CAN BE KEPT
# More communication via computers rather than phones
# Companies won't always keep all data all the time
# Anonymity online masks criminal identities
# More online services provided from abroad
# Data held in many locations and difficult to find Source: Home Office
consultation
But, recognising that the internet has changed the way people talk, the
CSPs will also be asked to record some third party data or information
partly based overseas, such as visits to an online chatroom and social
network sites like Facebook or Twitter.
Security services could then seek to examine this data along with
information which links it to specific devices, such as a mobile phone,
home computer or other device, as part of investigations into criminal
suspects.
The plan expands a voluntary arrangement under which CSPs allow security
services to access some data which they already hold.
The security services already deploy advanced techniques to monitor
telephone conversations or intercept other communications, but this is
not used in criminal trials.
Ms Smith said that while the new system could record a visit to a social
network, it would not record personal and private information such as
photos or messages posted to a page.
"What we are talking about is who is at one end [of a communication] and
who is at the other - and how they are communicating,
Existing legal safeguards under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers
Act would continue to apply. Requests to see the data would require top
level authorisation within a public body such as a police force. The
Home Office is running a separate consultation on limiting the number of
public authorities that can access sensitive information or carry out
covert surveillance.
'Orwellian'
Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne said: "I am pleased
that the Government has climbed down from the Big Brother plan for a
centralised database of all our emails and phone calls.
"However, any legislation that requires individual communications
providers to keep data on who called whom and when will need strong
safeguards on access.
"It is simply not that easy to separate the bare details of a call from
its content. What if a leading business person is ringing Alcoholics
Anonymous, or a politician's partner is arranging to hire a porn video?
"There has to be a careful balance between investigative powers and the
right to privacy."
Shadow home secretary Chris Grayling said: "The big problem is that the
government has built a culture of surveillance which goes far beyond
counter terrorism and serious crime. Too many parts of Government have
too many powers to snoop on innocent people and that's really got to
change.
"It is good that the home secretary appears to have listened to
Conservative warnings about big brother databases. Now that she has
finally admitted that the public don't want their details held by the
State in one place, perhaps she will look at other areas in which the
Government is trying to do precisely that."
Guy Herbert of campaign group NO2ID said: "Just a week after the home
secretary announced a public consultation on some trivial trimming of
local authority surveillance, we have this: a proposal for powers more
intrusive than any police state in history.
"Ministers are making a distinction between content and communications
data into sound-bite of the year. But it is spurious.
"Officials from dozens of departments and quangos could know what you
read online, and who all your friends are, who you emailed, when, and
where you were when you did so - all without a warrant."
The consultation runs until 20 July 2009.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.
Published: 2009/04/27 13:50:15 GMT
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