Just been reading that in a couple of months all ISPs in the UK will by law have to keep all information relating to every e-mail sent and received for a one year period. Seems that most ISPs do this already, would have been nice if my ISP made this clear in the T&C’s when I signed last year.
Looks like the Government is planning the terrorist card here again by stating that this is a vital move to monitoring and combating terrorist or criminal activity. Total cost of the scheme = £70m. You could get lots of new police on the streets for that couldn’t you? I understand that its important to use new methods of tracking conversions of people that are highlighted as a concern but surely there should be some application process and tracking started and not just a blanket monitoring system.
The data will be available to over 600 Government agencies with a ‘valid’ request and it claims that it won’t record the actual content of an email but we know how easy it is to record information from email headers.
TechCrunch added
The government has plans for a bigger data retention scheme called the Interception Modernisation Programme involving 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 Guardian recently pointed out:
“People would be outraged if BT monitored telephone calls for explicit conversations or the Post Office for unseemly letters, yet government is considering such options for ISPs. The monitoring of any such system would be very expensive. It would also incriminate innocent people and make much bigger incursions into the privacy of everyone than could be justified by the few successes it might get. The big porn operators, usually pioneers of new technology, would switch overnight to another corner of the web.”
More to follow I’m sure when the Government release more details.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
i find this idea pointless and a wast of financial spending. it will force the terrorists who they are trying to catch to hack into another persons isp to send emails/use other methods such as chatrooms and online chat games. Also i do not wish for who i send emails to, to be recorded.. i am certainly not a terrorists and all the innocent people in the UK will be told they have nothing to worry about ect ect yet we do because who knows later in the future if they monitor txts and calls ect then we commit a crime whos to say they wnt use it against them fair enough maybe they should but the complete lack of privacy for everyone ?!?! why its like living in a cage and as this technology to monitor this rises so will the terrorists ability to hide it all cover there tracks get onto other peoples isp’s bcoz as the internet advances so does the hackers and computer circle so cmon ure telling us were going to be monitered like mice in a rats cage whilst thouse u need to moitor like terrosists now about this then will slip through the gaps in the cage wherever theres something new and so called unpenetrable or unescapable there is always a way for thouse who really need to stay hidden and wat about ghoast isp’s? and i have teen daughter who knows more then me on internet services stuf so its not exactly hard
Hi Hannah, thanks for the comment. Your right it does seem to be a massive waste of money but I’ve come to the conclusion that the UK Government just has to be seen to be doing something to track terrorists and react to the new ways they communicate over digital channels.