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Contents 1 Executive Summary 2 Back Story 3 The Issues 3.1 Mass surveillance and "fishing expeditions" 3.2 Meaningful oversight 3.3 Proportionality 3.4 Cost 3.5 Personal data security 4 Links 4.1 Pending Freedom of Information Request 4.2 Communication with the Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith 4.3 Government Resources 4.4 Experts 4.5 Media 4.5.1 2009 4.5.2 2008

[edit] Executive Summary

The Intercept Modernisation Programme, or Communications Data Bill, is a set of new proposals from the UK Government.on the UK Government's Draft Legislative Bill for the Parliamentary session beginning October 2008. It has been reported that they include a proposal to centralise the electronic communications traffic data of the entire UK population in a database managed by the Government.

Jacqui Smith spoke about the plans on 15 October at an ippr event. She said that although the original plans had been due to go before the House of Commons in the Communications Data Bill in November, she was now holding back this Bill "in order to expand the extent of surveillance powers open to the security services, while consulting further on the best way to win public support for the plan" (Daily Telegraph report). She did not reveal the substance of the original plans.

The LSE have produced a detailed briefing on the Interception Modernisation Programme.

[edit] Back Story

According to a written answer submitted to the Earl of Northesk by Lord West of Spithead, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Security and Counter-terrorism), Home Office:

"the objective of the Intercept Modernisation Programme (IMP) is to maintain the UK's lawful intercept and communications data capabilities in the changing communications environment. It is a cross-government programme, led by the Home Office, to ensure that our capability to lawfully intercept and exploit data when fighting crime and terrorism is not lost. It was established in response to my right honourable friend the Prime Minister's national security remit in 2006."[1][2]

Starting with The Times, who broke the story in May 2008, several media reports have claimed that as part of this programme a new national database would be created to centralise the electronic communications data (some of it collected and retained by ISPs and other communications service providers under Data Retention legislation passed down from Europe, others of it not collected or retained under any existing statute) of the entire population[3].

The BBC added some substance to the speculation in May when it ran an interview with Stuart Ward, a telecoms security engineer, who says the government has been in conversation with mobile phone operators about the best way to implement a centralised database[4]. Since the stories started appearing the proposals have been criticised by a number of sources, including the Information Commissioner, Richard Thomas[5].

Over the Summer, the Home Office responded to speculation with statements that the detail of the Communications Data Bill, are yet to be released.

[edit] The Issues

[edit] Mass surveillance and "fishing expeditions"

The EU Data Retention Directive, which is currently being transposed into UK law, requires that Communications Service Providers (CSPs) store communications traffic data for between 6 months and 2 years (depending on how the Member State wishes to implement the Directive - it is likely that the UK will go for 12 months).

If the government wish to view stored communications traffic data, they need to approach individual CSPs directly with a Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) warrant for access to that data. A centralised database would lower the cost of viewing communications traffic data, as all CSPs would deposit the data with a central Government agency.

Lowering the cost of surveillance is likely to lead to more so-called "fishing expeditions", where officials use the communications patterns of known targets to identify unknown targets. As a Home Office spokesman is quoted as saying in this Guardian piece:

"It... gives investigators the potential to identify other forensic opportunities, identify witnesses and premises of evidential interest."

Many activists - including ORG - spoke out against the EU Data Retention Directive when it was being drafted in 2005. Centralising the data retained under the Directive would be even worse - it takes us from a situation where the Government can watch anybody, to where the Government can watch everybody. Mass surveillance undermines human dignity, which is the value that underpins every other human right.

[edit] Meaningful oversight

Any scheme which gives Government agencies power to access communications traffic data needs meaningful oversight. If data is collected centrally, then it will be difficult for an external body properly to audit the way that data is accessed, and to see that those operating it are strict about complying to RIPA and Data Protection Act requirements.

[edit] Proportionality

RIPA powers are already being abused by government agencies. As Sir Christopher Rose, the Chief Surveillance Commissioner, noted in his most recent report to the Prime Minister [6]:

The evidence is that [Local Authorities] tend to resort to covert activity as a last resort but, when they do, have a tendency to expose lack of understanding of the legislation by completing documentation poorly. In particular there is a serious misunderstanding of the concept of proportionality. It is not acceptable, for example, to judge, that because directed surveillance is being conducted from a public place, this automatically renders the activity overt or to assert that an activity is proportionate because it is the only way to further an investigation. At the end of the reporting period, media reports highlighted the need for a public debate on the use of these powers and specifically the issue of proportionality.

Local authorities have used RIPA powers to spy on a family for three weeks to find out if they were really living in a school catchment area (Poole), or to investigate dog fouling (Derby City Council, Bolton, Gateshead and Hartlepool) [7].

[edit] Cost

Centralising storage of communications traffic data would entail huge costs - to government and to ISPs, who could have to make major and expensive changes to their core networks, for example to be able to hand over your web browsing records. It is possible that some or all of these costs would need to be met by the taxpayer. The Home Office is already managing a multi-billion pound database project in the National Identity Register. Could this money be better spent elsewhere?

[edit] Personal data security

The government has a poor record on keeping your personal data secure (See UK Privacy Debacles). Large databases which grant access to hundreds of different users will always be subject to "insider threats" - public servants who are either corrupt[8] or incompetent[9]. This puts the security of vulnerable people, such as those fleeing abusive relationships, at greater risk of harm.

[edit] Links

[edit] Pending Freedom of Information Request

The Open Rights Group has made the following FOI request to the Home Office regarding the Intercept Modernisation Programme: http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/intercept_modernisation_programm

[edit] Communication with the Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith

The security commentary site Zero Flaws wrote directly to the Home Secretary regarding the proposals: http://www.zeroflaws.net/dearjacquismith

The following response was sent by the Home Office to Zero Flaws: http://www.zeroflaws.net/homeofficereply

[edit] Government Resources

NCIS SUBMISSION ON COMMUNICATIONS DATA RETENTION LAW Leaked strategy document of 2000 from A.C.P.O. and A.C.P.O (S) H.M. CUSTOMS & EXCISE SECURITY SERVICE SECRET INTELLIGENCE SERVICE, AND GCHQ - from Cryptome

Draft Legislative Programme - Communications Data Bill

Link to consult on Communications Data Bill via direct.gov.uk

Written Answer to Earl of Northesk on the Intercept Modernisation Programme

[edit] Experts

Stuart Ward, Telecom's Security Officer's personal blog post

Information Commissioner's Statement

[edit] Media

[edit] 2009

2009-04-07 - ZDNet - Home Office denies prototype intercept database

Author: Tom Espiner

Summary: According to the Home Office, no prototype database has been built by either the Home Office or the intelligence services, to test whether all UK citizens' communications information can be stored. ... Phil Booth, national co-ordinator for No2ID, told ZDNet UK on Tuesday that he doubted the accuracy of the Home Office statement, due to the age of the IMP. "It's very unlikely (the intelligence services) haven't done at least some limited line testing," said Booth. "It's unlikely they would work for five years on a project and not test it."

2009-03-25 - BBC - Social network sites 'monitored'

Summary: Social networking sites like Facebook could be monitored by the UK government under proposals to make them keep details of users' contacts. The Home Office said it was needed to tackle crime gangs and terrorists who might use the sites, but said it would not keep the content of conversations. Tens of millions of people use sites like Facebook, Bebo and MySpace to chat with friends, but ministers say they have no interest in the content of discussions - just who people have been talking to.

2009-03-25 - The Independent - Now 'Big Brother' targets Facebook

Author: Nigel Morris

Summary: Millions of Britons who use social networking sites such as Facebook could soon have their every move monitored by the Government and saved on a "Big Brother" database. The idea to police MySpace, Bebo and Facebook comes on top of plans to store information about every phone call, email and internet visit made by everyone in the United Kingdom. ... the Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Tom Brake, he insisted: "I accept this is an extremely difficult area. The interface between retaining data, private security and all such issues of privacy is extremely important. It is absolutely right to point out the difficulty of ensuring we maintain a capability and a capacity to deal with crime and issues of national security – and where that butts up against issues of privacy."

2009-01-12 - The Register - CPS denies support for uberdatabase

Author: Chris Williams

Summary: The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has clarified comments by the UK's top prosecutor, denying that he supports proposals for a centralised warehouse of private communications data. ... Today the CPS said Starmer's comments should not have been interpreted as "tacit support" for a multibillion pound data harvesting operation. "The Guardian suggests he would support the database. That isn't correct," a spokeswoman said.

2009-01-09 - The Register - Confusion reigns ahead of comms uberdatabase debate

Author: Chris Williams

Summary: Disentangling IMP from the EU Data Retention Directive. Jacqui Smith will soon begin one of the Home Office's famed consultation exercises on new systems demanded by spy chiefs to snoop on internet communications in the UK. But already, the mangle of powers and regulations around data retention threatens public understanding of what is being suggested.A somewhat confused report from the BBC today attempts to trace the links between the Interception Modernisation Programme (IMP) and the imminently-in-force EU Data Retention Directive (EUDRD) ...

2009-01-09 - BBC - UK e-mail law 'attack on rights'

Summary: Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty, said "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."

2009-01-07 - The Telegraph - MI5 chief warns of threat from global recession

Author: Duncan Gardham

Summary: The head of MI5 is also concerned that the development of new ways of telephoning over the internet could represent a "significant detriment to national security" and that new powers are needed to tackle the threat. While calls can be monitored, phone bills - which can constitute vital evidence in prosecutions - are not available from internet phone services. "If we are to maintain our capability we are going to have to make decisions in the next few years" he said, "Because traditional ways are unlikely to work."

2009-01-07 - The Guardian - MI5 chief: al-Qaida threat diminished, but not yet over

Author: Richard Norton-Taylor

Summary: The head of MI5 ... warns that ... Not getting access to emails and data on internet sites would be detrimental to national security.

2009-01-01 - The Telegraph - It's the database, not who runs it, that matters

Summary: Anger should be directed at the project itself. If there is one thing that must stop in the year ahead it is this Government obsession with hoovering up all the personal information it can get its hands on. Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, says this is "vital" to maintain Britain's capacity to combat terrorism, the argument governments always use in order to justify restrictions on liberties. This must not be allowed to turn into an argument over who should collect the information. The debate should be about the need for such a database in the first place. Otherwise, when it is linked up with the proposed ID database, the last vestiges of personal privacy will be stripped away.

2009-01-01 - ars technica - Private firm to guard database of every phone call, e-mail

Summary: A contentious proposal to create a massive database of communications metadata in the United Kingdom has just become even more controversial. According to reports in the British press, a "consultation paper" laying out the plan, slated for release in January, contemplates outsourcing the maintenance of the database to private-sector firms. The proposal has already come under fire from civil liberties groups, the European human rights commissioner, and former public officials. Initially included in Britain's Communications Data Bill as part of a sweeping Interception Modernisation Programme, the surveillance proposal was dropped from the legislation in September, but it was not abandoned.

[edit] 2008

2008-12-31 - The Independent - UK's database plan condemned by Europe

Author: Robert Verkaik

Summary: Britain must rethink plans for a database holding details of every email, mobile phone and internet visit, Europe's human rights commissioner has said in an outspoken attack on the growth of surveillance societies. Thomas Hammarberg said that UK proposals for sweeping powers to collect and store data will increase the risk of the "violation of an individual's privacy".

2008-12-31 - The Guardian - Private firm may track all email and calls

Author: Alan Travis and Richard Norton-Taylor

Summary: The private sector will be asked to manage and run a communications database that will keep track of everyone's calls, emails, texts and internet use under a key option contained in a consultation paper to be published next month by Jacqui Smith, the home secretary. ... Sir Ken Macdonald, the former director of public prosecutions, who has firsthand experience of working with intelligence and law enforcement agencies, ... warned it would prove a "hellhouse" of personal private information.

2008-12-04 - ZDNet - Gov't comms database plans put on hold

Author: Nick Heath

Summary: Plans for a centralised database of all UK communications data were put on the backburner after draft legislation failed to appear in Wednesday's Queen's speech. The Communications Data Bill was pushed back by the Home Office to allow more consultation on the proposals next year. There is concern the bill will allow the government to store all UK communications in a £12bn super database, with Whitehall arguing that the law needs to be updated to allow police and security services to monitor and store internet traffic in the fight against terrorism and serious crime.

2008-10-30 - ZDNet - Home Office begins work on comms data

Summary: Home secretary Jacqui Smith has said her department already has a team working on how it obtains communications data. This comes before the the government has begun the consultation on a proposed parliamentary bill that would enable it to gather communications data for policing and national security purposes. "We have brought together a team to look at some of the technical solutions around what it might be necessary to do, precisely in order to be able to inform the consultation, so that work of course is ongoing," Smith told parliament's Joint Committee on Human Rights on 28 October.

2008-10-15 - The Independent - Exclusive: Storm over Big Brother database

Author: Robert Verkaik and Nigel Morris

Summary: Early plans to create a giant "Big Brother" database holding information about every phone call, email and internet visit made in the UK were last night condemned by the Government's own terrorism watchdog.

2008-10-15 - The Telegraph - Jacqui Smith plans broad new 'Big Brother' surveillance powers

Author: Rosa Prince

Summary: Telephone calls, internet use and email will be monitored by the police as part of a broad extension of the ability of the state to snoop on citizens.

2008-10-08 - The Register - UK.gov £12bn comms überdatabase 'wouldn't spot terrorists'

Author: Chris Williams

Summary: A heavyweight US investigation of counter-terror databases has concluded that the type of intelligence mining proposed by UK spy chiefs under the auspices of the Interception Modernisation Programme (IMP) probably won't catch jihadis. The central database aspect of IMP is being discussed in secret on the basis it will "maintain capability" to examine suspects' communications activities, which in most cases are already stored by telcos. Critics charge that pooling call, mobile phone location and internet records will grant the intelligence services unprecedented powers to go on "fishing trips" for potential criminals. But Tuesday's 352-page report by the National Academies, which advise politicians on science, engineering and medicine, says that trawling databases for "suspicious" activity generates "huge numbers of false leads".

2008-10-07 - The Register - Spy chiefs plot £12bn IT spree for comms überdatabase

Author: Chris Williams

Summary: Billions of pounds of public money will soon be up for grabs for private IT contractors ready to serve the Interception Modernisation Programme - UK spy chiefs' plan to store details of every call, email, text and web browsing session.

2008-10-06 - Daily Express - Spies will tap into all emails and calls

Author: Macer Hall

Summary: All telephone calls, emails and text messages in Britain will be monitored under new Government snooping plans. A £12billion identity database at the GCHQ spy centre could even log every website visited by computer users nationwide. ... Michael Parker of anti-identity card group No2ID said: "It is a shocking intrusion into privacy. This is stalking. If an individual carried out this sort of snooping, it would be a crime."

2008-10-06 - Metro - 'Stalker state' database would cost £12bn

Summary: A database costing £12billion – to hold the e-mails, phone records and internet habits of everyone in Britain – would turn the country into a 'stalker state', lobby groups have warned.

2008-10-05 - The Times - Government will spy on every call and e-mail

Author: David Leppard

Summary: Ministers are considering spending up to £12 billion on a database to monitor and store the internet browsing habits, e-mail and telephone records of everyone in Britain.

2008-10-05 - The Times - There's no hiding place as spy HQ plans to see all

Author: David Leppard

Summary: Sir David Pepper who, as the director of GCHQ, the government's secret eavesdropping agency in Cheltenham, is plotting the biggest surveillance system ever created in Britain ... Pepper is masterminding an innocent-sounding project called the Interception Modernisation Programme. The scope of the project is said by officials to be so vast that it will dwarf the estimated £5 billion ministers have set aside for the identity cards programme. ... Aimed at placing a "live tap" on every electronic communication in Britain, it will dwarf other "big brother" surveillance projects ...

2008-09-25 - The Register - UK.gov 'to drop' überdatabase from snoop Bill

Author: Chris Williams

Summary: The government will drop plans for a massive central database to track private communications from the forthcoming Communications Data Bill, but officials will proceed with the multi-billion project in the background instead. Senior civil servants will discreetly run the project to swerve potential political opposition to a scheme which would retain details of every phone call, email, and web browsing session of every UK citizen, sources have told The Register.

2008-09-05 - ZDNet - Labour tech tsar attacks gov't comms-database plan

Author: Nick Heath

Summary: The Labour chairman of an influential technology group has warned that government plans to monitor UK email and internet records could collect too much data to be useful. ... Andrew Miller MP, chairman of the Parliamentary Information Technology Committee, cast doubt on the value of requiring ISPs to hold such a vast amount of information, saying the data would be too broad to be useful. ... Miller said: "The worry that I have is the sheer practicality of being able to manage that data in a meaningful way." "Keeping everything from everyone might seem like a good idea, but you have to face up to reality of what the hell are we going to do with it," he added.

2008-08-19 - Gizmodo USA - 'UK Gov't Creating Centralized Snooping Silo to Monitor all Calls, Texts, Emails, IMs and Surf Histories'

Author: Adam Frucci

Summary: The UK government has decided to spend hundreds of millions of pounds (gajillions of dollars in US currency) on a huge central silo for all of the country's communications data. What'll that entail? Well, apparently "the one-stop-shop database will retain details of all calls, texts, emails, instant messenger conversations and websites accessed in the UK for up to two years." Oh my.

2008-08-19 - The Register - 'UK.gov to spend hundreds of millions on snooping silo'

Author: Chris Williams

Summary: The government is pressing ahead with plans to spend hundreds of millions of pounds on a massive central silo for all UK communications data, The Register has learned.

2008-08-13 - The Guardian - 'Snooper's charter' to check texts and emails

Author: Alan Travis

Summary: Local councils, health authorities and hundreds of other public bodies are to be given the power to access details of everyone's personal text, emails and internet use under Home Office proposals published yesterday. Story relates to the of the Data Retntion Directive, but also references IMP.

2008-07-23 - Kable - Communications data requests top half million

Summary: Public authorities made 519,260 requests for communications data in 2007, an annualised increase of more than a half. The figure was published in the annual report of the interception of communications commissioner Sir Paul Kennedy. In the last nine months of 2006, he said that 253,557 requests for communications data were made of communication service providers, and last year's figure was 54% higher on an annualised basis.

2008-07-17 - BBC - 'No decision' on giant database

Summary: No decision has been taken to create a huge database containing details of all phone calls, e-mails and internet use, security minister Lord West says. The Information Commissioner has warned that such a database could be a "step too far for the British way of life". Asked in the House of Lords about that warning, Lord West said: "It is very early days as to where we go on this." But the switch from traditional phones meant the "entirely new" communication methods had to be assessed, he said. There have been reports that the giant database is planned for the government's proposed Communications Data Bill.

2008-07-16 - Daily Mail - Big Brother database recording all our calls, texts and e-mails will "ruin British way of life"

Author: Matthew Hickley

Summary: Plans for a massive database snooping on the entire population were condemned yesterday as a "step too far for the British way of life". In an Orwellian move, the Home Office is proposing to detail every phone call, e-mail, text message, internet search and online purchase in the fight against terrorism and other serious crime.

2008-07-16 - ZDNet - Privacy tsar: Gov't comms database 'a step too far'

Author: Nick Heath

Summary: The UK's privacy tsar has made a plea to the government not to rush through a centralised database of all UK communications. Richard Thomas said the rumoured database of UK phone and internet communications would be "a step too far for the British way of life". Thomas said in a statement: "There needs to be the fullest public debate about the justification for, and implications of, a specially created database — potentially accessible to a wide range of law-enforcement authorities — holding details of everyone's telephone and internet communications."

2008-07-15 - The Guardian - Multimillion pound security project shelved by ministers

Author: Rob Evans and Richard Norton-Taylor

Summary: A multimillion pound project designed to improve Britain's security by giving key government officials speedy access to secret intelligence on terrorism and other threats has been shelved, the Guardian has learned. Ministers have frozen the development of a secure computer network that would have radically transformed the way the security and intelligence agencies handle sensitive information. The government has refused to disclose the cost of the project, codenamed SCOPE. It has been described by parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee as marking the "beginning of the end" of distributing paper copies of intelligence reports around Whitehall and as "fundamentally changing the way the UK intelligence community interacts". A limited version of the project, called SCOPE 1, is finally up and running after a two-year delay. This is the first stage of the project and enables the intelligence agencies - MI5, MI6, and GCHQ - and a limited number of other officials, to communicate with each other more quickly and securely than before. It enables them to call up the latest intelligence within 15 minutes rather than waiting up to 12 hours.

2008-07-15 - Computing - Communications database would be a "step too far"

Author: Tom Young

Summary: A government database that held records of citizens' phone and internet communications would be going a "step too far", according to the UK privacy watchdog. While acknowledging that the monitoring of communications was important in the fight against crime, information commissioner Richard Thomas said such proposals should not go ahead without proper public and parliamentary debate.

2008-07-15 - Kable - Communications database 'a step too far'

Summary: The information commissioner has criticised the concept of a national database for details of all electronic communications. Richard Thomas questioned whether the state should extend its access to people's personal lives and called for more debate on plans to collect data. "There needs to be the fullest public debate about the justification for, and implications of, a specially created database – potentially accessible to a wide range of law enforcement authorities – holding details of everyone's telephone and internet communications," Thomas said on 15 July 2008. "Do we really want the police, security services and other organs of the state to have access to more and more aspects of our private lives?"

2008-07-15 - BBC Online - Warning over phone calls database

Summary: A central database holding details of everyone's phone calls and emails could be a "step too far for the British way of life", ministers have been warned. Plans for such a database are rumoured to be in the Communications Data Bill.

2008-07-15 - BBC iPM - Communications Data Bill: cause for concern?

Author: Jennifer Tracey

Summary: How do you feel about the possibility of a centralised police database holding details of every phone call and text message you've sent and websites you've visited?

2008-07-15 - ZDNet - Critics attack 'dangerous' gov't comms-snooping plan

Author: Tom Espiner

Summary: Internet service providers are to be invited to tender for a government scheme to monitor all internet communications and telecommunications. Under the proposed Interception Modernisation Programme (IMP), internet service providers (ISPs) would be required to link 'black boxes' to their servers to record all internet traffic, including details of emails, VoIP telephone conversations, instant messages and browsing habits. Telephone conversations would also be monitored.

2008-07-12 - BBC Online - Fears grow over information plans

Summary: Government plans to collect more data on mobile phone calls and internet usage have been further criticised as an attack on civil liberties.

2008-06-23 - Liberal Conspiracy - If I could commission one government IT project

Author: Lynne Featherstone MP

Summary: I've been pretty critical of two massive government IT projects - the existing plans to introduce mandatory identity cards with a huge database behind them and also the Home Office talk of a database of all phone calls and emails made anywhere in the country. My criticisms in both cases are three-fold: the money involved could be better spent on other projects (such as giving us more police rather than keeping huge databases of the activities of innocent people), they involve a huge infringement of our liberties and privacy, and - thirdly - big IT projects like this are likely to go wrong and to be vulnerable to misuse.

2008-05-22 - Computer Weekly - Revealed - Government plans to tap phone and internet use

Author: Cath Jennings

Summary: The Home Office is considering radical plans to develop a centralised surveillance system to track in real-time every kind of electronic activity undertaken by citizens. The project, driven by intelligence services, would require the development of a surveillance system unprecedented in its scope and technical sophistication.

2008-05-21 - Society for Computers and Law - Communications Data Bill: ICO Repeats Warning on Surveillance Society

Summary: The ICO has released a statement expressing concerns about the Government plans for a Communications Data Bill. The Government plans for a Communications Data Bill, outlined in its draft legislative programme, have received a pretty distrustful reaction from the ICO.

2008-05-20 - Silicon.com - Critics attack gov't email, phone database plan

Author: Nick Heath

Summary: All email, blogs, instant messaging and VoIP calls could be monitored under government proposals - but critics warn the plans go too far. As of last September telecoms providers must keep all text and phone call records for up to two years under an EU directive, and this is to be rolled out to include all online traffic by 2009 at the latest.

2008-05-20 - ZDNet - Gov't planning centralised communications database

Author: David Meyer

Summary: Privacy and IT security experts have reacted with horror to reported government plans that would see UK citizens' internet and telephony usage details stored in a massive centralised database.

2008-05-20 - The Times - "Big Brother" database for phones and e-mails

Author: Richard Ford

Summary: A massive government database holding details of every phone call, e-mail and time spent on the internet by the public is being planned as part of the fight against crime and terrorism. Internet service providers (ISPs) and telecoms companies would hand over the records to the Home Office under plans put forward by officials.

2008-05-15 - Outlaw.com - Government orders data retention by ISPs

Summary: Phone and internet companies will soon be forced to keep logs of internet usage to be made available to the police under a new law announced by Prime Minister Gordon Brown this week. The law, the Communications Data Bill, will implement the remainder of the European Union's Data Retention Directive.