Thetownend.com

Rules forcing internet companies to keep details of every e-mail sent in the UK are a waste of money and an attack on civil liberties, say critics.

From March all internet service providers (ISPs) will by law have to keep information about every e-mail sent or received in the UK for a year.

Human rights group Liberty says it is worried what will happen next.

The Home Office insists the data, which does not include e-mails' content, is vital for crime and terror inquiries.

Some three billion e-mails are thought to be sent each day in the UK.

Safe keeping

Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty, said ISPs already kept the information on a voluntary basis.

"The thing we have to worry about is what happens next because the government is already mooting plans not just to leave this stuff with the providers but to create a central government database where they hold all the information.

"I'm afraid we just don't trust any government or any organisation to keep that much very sensitive information about us all and to keep it safe."

Critics of the new rules also include an association of internet service providers and computer experts.

Dr Richard Clayton, a security researcher at the University of Cambridge's computer lab, said the money could have been better spent.

He said:"There's going to be a record of every single e-mail which arrived addressed to you and all the e-mails you sent out via your ISP.

"That, of course, includes all the spam.

"I'd have liked to see more bobbies on an electronic beat investigating internet crimes.

"There are much better things to do to spend our billions on than snooping on everybody in the country just on the off-chance that they're a criminal."

The new rules are due to come into force on 15 March, as part of a European Commission directive which could affect every ISP in the country.

The firms will have to store the information and make it available to any public body which makes a lawful request, which could include police, local councils and health authorities.

To help set up the system the government may end up paying ISPs between £25m and £70m.

The rules already apply to telephone companies, which routinely hold much of the data for billing.

The Earl of Northesk, a Conservative peer on the House of Lords science and technology committee, said it meant anyone's movements could be traced 24 hours a day.

"This degree of storage is equivalent to having access to every second, every minute, every hour of your life," he said.

"People have to worry about the scale, the virtuality of your life being exposed to about 500 public authorities.

"Under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, privacy is a fundamental right... it is important to protect the principle of privacy because once you've lost it, it's very difficult to recover."

The Home Office said the data was a vital tool for investigation and intelligence gathering.

"It will allow investigators to identify suspects, examine their contacts, establish relationships between conspirators and place them in a specific location at a certain time.

"Implementing the EC directive will enable UK law enforcement to benefit fully from historical communications data in increasingly complex investigations and will enhance our national security."

'Better things'

But the industry itself has concerns about how the new rules will work.

Malcolm Hutty, from LINX (London Internet Exchange), a membership association for ISPs, said: "The position as to what the ISPs are to do is not clear."

He said on paper the law applied to all companies, but the Home Office has been saying informally that small ISPs would be exempt.

He said they were now left "in limbo", fearful of legal action if at some time in the future as the company became bigger, they were then expected to collect the data.

Reports have suggested the government has even bigger plans for data retention called the Interception Modernisation Programme.

It could involve one central database, gathering details on every text sent, e-mail sent, phone call made and website visited.

Consultation on the plans is due to begin later this year.

The really odd thing is that they can't see email contents, only the titles, sender and recipient. So unless Al-Queda start sending messages with the title "RE: Parliament Bomb Plot" I can't see it being much use.

Whats the big deal? If you are not doing anything wrong there's nothing to worry about surely?

You and people like you are the reason we are sleeping walking into a police state. The reason it matters is that do you turst the goverment to only use it for those comit crime?

Those in power do all they can to control and keep power. That is way goverment after goverment has surpressed the rights of the public eg you are now not alound to protest outside parliment without the permission of the state. So if the state don't like what you have to stay they can fuck you off.

The police have the power and use the power to detain protesters without chagre if they suspect "disorder" this power has been used for example against those protesting at the arms fair in docklands. Up to 100 protesters were held  in an under pass using the terrisom act they were held without charge for 6 hours, photographed etc then reasled one by one.

As this is a footy fourm perhaps it is worth while pointing out the abuse of the state agaisnt football fans I would refer you to the cunts at GMP who shipped off a pub full of stoke shirters because they decided they were thugs. Most of us have been filnmed searched abused by police at football in the name of up holding the law. How many of use have ever done anything wrong.

The fact is the state don't want people to think for themselves they want everyone to belive what they say without question and not question there actions even if they are wrong. To do this they are using fear of mulsim, war, gobal warming to scare people and use this fear to pass ever more resctive laws but of course if you have done nothing wrong whats the problem untill of course just having your own thoughts or being different is wrong. We are on a slippery slope and the sooner we wake up the better.

youve quoted that off the net havent you :)

No spelling mistakes gave you away.

You and people like you are the reason we are sleeping walking into a police state. The reason it matters is that do you turst the goverment to only use it for those comit crime?

Those in power do all they can to control and keep power. That is way goverment after goverment has surpressed the rights of the public eg you are now not alound to protest outside parliment without the permission of the state. So if the state don't like what you have to stay they can fuck you off.

The police have the power and use the power to detain protesters without chagre if they suspect "disorder" this power has been used for example against those protesting at the arms fair in docklands. Up to 100 protesters were held  in an under pass using the terrisom act they were held without charge for 6 hours, photographed etc then reasled one by one.

As this is a footy fourm perhaps it is worth while pointing out the abuse of the state agaisnt football fans I would refer you to the cunts at GMP who shipped off a pub full of stoke shirters because they decided they were thugs. Most of us have been filnmed searched abused by police at football in the name of up holding the law. How many of use have ever done anything wrong.

The fact is the state don't want people to think for themselves they want everyone to belive what they say without question and not question there actions even if they are wrong. To do this they are using fear of mulsim, war, gobal warming to scare people and use this fear to pass ever more resctive laws but of course if you have done nothing wrong whats the problem untill of course just having your own thoughts or being different is wrong. We are on a slippery slope and the sooner we wake up the better.

But the point is there is nothing any of us can do to change it....so although i dont like it..i have to lump it,i think its staggering i pay £120 per month council tax on top of all our other taxes,i think its wrong we pay for our prescriptions,when in Scotland and Wales they dont,i think theres hundreds of reasons why we should be pissed off,big brother has helped track down alot of criminals and may act as a deterent in cases(cctv).
The police have alot of power to wealdbut i side on the basis that if your law abiding(even though you think the laws are wrong) then you are in no trouble regarding a so called police state,in relation to other countrys we are very privelidged........its just a shame weve all got to pay through our noses to make it like that.

Human rights group Liberty

BR, The point is that its basically death by a thousand cuts.  
Government today bring in a law, with I'm sure, the best intentions. The next government might not.

Who polices the police?

As I have learnt from watching The Wire, the Baddies will avoid detection by the authorities by using "burner" email addresses, probably at internet cafes, which will make them almost impossible to monitor.

it's not real it's called a tv program.

it's not real it's called a tv program.