[R-G] Brits Plan to monitor all internet use

[Anthony Fenton]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/8020039.stm

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.

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.

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," she said.

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.

...

Report:

  "Protecting the Public in a Changing Communications Environment":

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/27_04_09communicationsconsultation.pdf