U.K. May Require ISPs to Retain Social Networking, Online Gaming, Skype Traffic Data
The U.K. may be preparing to broaden Internet traffic data retention powers to include social networks, online gaming chat rooms and Skype, as well as real-time monitoring. The plan, expected to be announced next month in the Queen’s Speech, aims to maintain continued availability of communications data as technology changes, the Home Office said. But privacy advocates said the proposal, which was proposed several years ago by the Labor government and then scrapped due to strong opposition, would put the U.K. in the same surveillance league as China and Iran. Moreover, said one, it could be a back-stop if the European Commission decides to make major changes to the controversial EU data retention directive, which is currently under review.
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The regulation will require ISPs to install hardware to allow monitoring on demand and in real-time of telephony and Internet traffic data, The Independent reported Monday. Like the current law, it doesn’t allow access to content without a warrant, it said. It’s “vital” that police and security services are able to obtain communications data in certain circumstances to “investigate serious crime and terrorism and to protect the public,” a Home Office spokesman told us. “We need to take action to maintain the continued availability” of such data as technology changes, he said. The data include time, duration and dialing numbers of a phone call, or an email address, he said. The government doesn’t intend to change existing law on interception of communications, he said.
The government “will legislate as soon as parliamentary time allows to ensure that the use of communications data is compatible with the Government’s approach to civil liberties,” the Home Office spokesman said in an email. It’s important that proposals to update government powers to intercept and retain communications data in the new communications environment are “proportionate, respect freedom of expression and the privacy of users, and are widely consulted upon in an open and transparent manner,” said the Internet Service Providers’ Association UK.
EU rules for storing, accessing and using telecommunications data need reworking to prevent the different types of operators from facing unfair obstacles in the internal market and to ensure a high level of respect for privacy and personal data protection, the EC said last April. It’s working on a revision of the directive that could emerge by the end of the year, an EC source said. But the revision process doesn’t call into question the authority of EU governments to ensure data retention for law enforcement purposes, the source said.
Asked how the U.K.’s plan would fit with the data retention directive, General Secretary Guy Herbert of anti-state database campaign organization No2ID, said, “Readily.” In one sense it just adds to the EU measure, which was instituted at the insistence of the U.K. Home Office in the first place, he told us. Moreover, the enhanced “snooping” law “might well be a replacement” for a revised data storage directive, he said. Domestic legislation that more than covers the same ground and that requires equipment to be installed in every ISP “is sovereign against the EU changing its mind” on data retention, he said. The EC “likes this sort of stuff” because it makes the EU more of a single security state, but some countries, such as Germany, Portugal and the former Warsaw Pact nations don’t, he said.
The government “has offered no justification for what is unprecedented intrusion into our lives,” said Big Brother Watch Deputy Director Emma Carr on the organization’s blog. It’s far from clear that such wide-ranging surveillance will improve public safety and it will add significant costs to Internet business, she said.
A spokesman for the Information Commissioner’s Office told us his role in this Home Office project “has been to press for the necessary limitations and safeguards to mitigate the impact” on privacy. The U.K. privacy watchdog will continue to seek assurances, including a through privacy impact assessment, he said. Ultimately, the decision about whether to proceed with the project is up to Parliament, he said.