Gordon Brown wants all traffic data – itemised phone bills, mobile phone records and Internet traffic logs – to be collected and stored in a central government database.
An announcement on 19 May 2008 by the UK government may herald the next
step in governmental attempts to grab hold of traffic data. Despite the
strongly negative reactions against the EU data retention directive,
which governments must transpose into national law by 15 March 2009,
the UK government (which has been a key driver of data retention) now
demands even more.
Gordon Brown wants all traffic data – itemised phone bills, mobile
phone records and Internet traffic logs – to be collected and stored in
a central government database. The plan, which appeared in Monday's
Times, has been criticised by the opposition as `more of a threat to
our security than a support' while the privacy regulator said that `We
are not aware of any justification for the State to hold every UK
citizen's phone and internet records' and opined that the proposal `may
well be a step too far'.
The UK Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act already enables public
officials to obtain traffic data from service providers, and has come
in for recent criticism as the scope of its use has become clear. When
it was passed in 2000, only nine organisations were allowed to use it
but that number has risen to 792.
In private briefings to ISP and telco staff, government officials have
said they want to trace criminals' contact networks faster and more
cheaply, and having all traffic data on one database will be much more
convenient than having to make repeated enquiries of multiple phone
companies, ISPs and other service providers. They also want to make
global enquiries such as `show me everyone in the UK who sent emails at
21:07, 21:22 and 21:55 last Tuesday'. The ISPs for their part have
complained that harvesting large quantities of data that they do not at
present keep for business purposes will require massively expensive
network re-engineering. There are also serious doubts about the UK
government's ability to build a system capable enough to cope with
billions of emails, texts and phone messages, given its long history of
failed software projects.
One argument behind the data retention directive was that a purely
national system of data retention could not be very effective, as ISPs
would simply move their operations to other Member States to save the
cost of compliance. It remains to be seen whether the same arguments
will once again be used to argue for centralised data retention on a
European scale. It is also quite unclear whether a government database
of all citizens' phone and Internet records is consistent with European
law.
`Big Brother' database for phones and e-mails (20.05.2008)
Anti-terror law used to snoop on fishermen (14.05.2008)
Government orders data retention by ISPs (15.05.2008)
EDRI gram: Data retention for one year for UK telecom companies (1.08.2007)
Source: EDRi-gram "UK Government will store all phone, Internet traffic data" Number 6.10, 21 May 2008
