Treffie
04-27-2009, 09:14 AM
Plans to track all e-mails sent, all phone calls made and all internet pages visited in the UK are being unveiled by Home Secretary Jacqui Smith.
Ministers say the move is needed so police and the security services can investigate crime and terrorism.
Ms Smith said there would not be a new database created - service providers would have to store details instead.
Shadow home secretary Chris Grayling said:"We must not allow ourselves to become a Big Brother society."
The consultation about the programme, which is to track details of when and where electronic communications are made but not their content, has already been delayed.
Ministers say it is merely intended to update powers which already exist for ordinary phone calls to cover data and information online - such as internet-based phone calls.
Details of the times, dates, duration and locations of mobile phone calls, numbers called, websites visited and addresses e-mailed are already stored by telecommunications companies for 12 months under a voluntary agreement.
It is a hallmark of free societies that whilst the police target criminal suspects, government does not monitor the entire population
Shami Chakrabarti
Liberty
The data can be accessed by police on request but the government said it planned to take control of the process in order to comply with an EU directive and make it easier for investigators to do their job.
Information would be kept for two years by law and ministers had been considering creating a central searchable database - but Ms Smith has now ruled that out.
Instead she is proposing a system based on the current model - where data is collected by communication service providers with police, intelligence agencies and public authorities having regulated access.
Data originating abroad but crossing networks in the UK will also be required to be stored by communication service providers.
When the idea of the database emerged last year the Liberal Democrats called the idea of a giant database "Orwellian".
Shami Chakrabarti, director of civil rights group Liberty, said: "It is a hallmark of free societies that whilst the police target criminal suspects, government does not monitor the entire population."
Former Director of Public Prosecutions Sir Ken Macdonald said: "This database would be an unimaginable hell house of personal private information. It would be a complete read-out of every citizen's life in the most intimate and demeaning detail."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8020039.stm
Ministers say the move is needed so police and the security services can investigate crime and terrorism.
Ms Smith said there would not be a new database created - service providers would have to store details instead.
Shadow home secretary Chris Grayling said:"We must not allow ourselves to become a Big Brother society."
The consultation about the programme, which is to track details of when and where electronic communications are made but not their content, has already been delayed.
Ministers say it is merely intended to update powers which already exist for ordinary phone calls to cover data and information online - such as internet-based phone calls.
Details of the times, dates, duration and locations of mobile phone calls, numbers called, websites visited and addresses e-mailed are already stored by telecommunications companies for 12 months under a voluntary agreement.
It is a hallmark of free societies that whilst the police target criminal suspects, government does not monitor the entire population
Shami Chakrabarti
Liberty
The data can be accessed by police on request but the government said it planned to take control of the process in order to comply with an EU directive and make it easier for investigators to do their job.
Information would be kept for two years by law and ministers had been considering creating a central searchable database - but Ms Smith has now ruled that out.
Instead she is proposing a system based on the current model - where data is collected by communication service providers with police, intelligence agencies and public authorities having regulated access.
Data originating abroad but crossing networks in the UK will also be required to be stored by communication service providers.
When the idea of the database emerged last year the Liberal Democrats called the idea of a giant database "Orwellian".
Shami Chakrabarti, director of civil rights group Liberty, said: "It is a hallmark of free societies that whilst the police target criminal suspects, government does not monitor the entire population."
Former Director of Public Prosecutions Sir Ken Macdonald said: "This database would be an unimaginable hell house of personal private information. It would be a complete read-out of every citizen's life in the most intimate and demeaning detail."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8020039.stm