U.K. government eyes database for storing info on electronic communications

May 20, 2008 (IDG News Service) Civil liberties groups in the U.K. are up in arms about a possible move by the national government to set up a central database that could be used to keep track of phone calls, e-mail messages and Web site visits for antiterrorism purposes.

The U.K. government is preparing new telecommunications legislation that it says is necessary to deal with changes in the way people communicate, including the use of e-mail, instant messaging, blogs and social networking sites. Under existing laws, the growing use of such technologies "will increasingly undermine our current capabilities to obtain communications data and use it to protect the public," said a spokeswoman for the U.K. Home Office.

As a result, the government wants to update the laws to allow authorities to obtain communications data that it says is essential for counterterrorism work as well as criminal investigations. And according to local media reports in the U.K., the creation of a new database that would store information about the electronic communications of citizens is among the measures being considered as part of a draft of the new legislation.

The Home Office said in a statement that government officials have yet to decide whether the database proposal will be included in the draft bill. Full details of the government's plans are scheduled to be released later this year, said the agency, which is responsible for fighting terrorism, crime, drug use and other "antisocial behavior" and for managing the U.K.'s passport and immigration processes.

Ross Anderson, chairman of the Foundation for Information Policy Research, an Internet policy think tank in the U.K., said that making such a database a reality would require a re-engineering of networks in the country. That could result in many network service providers simply moving abroad, Anderson claimed.

"It's an enormous power grab by the Home Office, and to think it will become a reality is wishful thinking," he said.

Jamie Cowper, director of European marketing at encryption software vendor PGP Corp., also criticized the idea of a central database for communications records.

"You've got to admire the government's gall in attempting to bring in yet another 'super-database' with public confidence still in tatters over recent lapses in data protection," Cowper said. He added that it would make more sense to prove that existing government databases are secure before introducing any additional ones.

The Internet Services Providers' Association, a trade group for ISPs in the U.K., is taking more of a wait-and-see approach toward the government's plans. But an ISPA spokesman said the group is worried about possible modifications to the procedures by which law-enforcement authorities acquire communications data from ISPs.

Reprinted with permission from

IDG.net
Story copyright 2008 International Data Group. All rights reserved.