Andre Yoskowitz
16 May 2008 17:37
UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown has passed a law that will force phone and internet companies to keep full logs of their customer's internet usage. The data will also need to be made readily available to the police if they need it.
The law, dubbed the "Communications Data Bill", is an offshoot of the EU's "Data Retention Directive". Last October the first part of the bill was passed and forced telcos to "keep records of phone calls to and from land lines and mobile telephones." That will now be extended to internet usage, emails, and VoIP records.
“The aim of the [Directive] is to ensure that certain data is retained to enable public authorities to undertake their lawful activities to investigate, detect and prosecute crime and to protect the public," added a Home Office spokeswoman.
“The first part of the [Directive] was transposed into UK law in October 2007 but the Government made a declaration … to postpone its application to the retention of communications data relating to internet access, internet telephony and internet email until 2009. So the measures referred to in the Communications Data Bill will complete the transposition of the Directive for IP [internet protocol] communications data," said the Home Office spokeswoman.
If the Bill follows the lead of the Data Retention Directive then the ISPs will have to keep the data logs for 12 months. Police and other law enforcement agencies can get access to the files through a court-ordered warrant.
This is not as bad as it sounds however. The law requires the log to say who called whom, when, and from where but there is no recording of the actual content of the phone calls. It is the same for internet usage records. The content of your emails are safe, for now.
Michael Eagle of the telecoms business lobby group Federation of Communications Services added that the regulations would have little impact on the industry or people's privacy.
"The reality is that nothing much has changed. The new legislation will make little practical difference as most telecoms providers keep certain information for billing purposes and customer records. That information would be enough to meet the requirements of law enforcement agencies. There is no need to keep more data that you are ever likely to be asked for."
The Home Office added some details about the bill. "The purpose of the Bill is to allow communications data capabilities for the prevention and detection of crime and protection of national security to keep up with changing technology through providing for the collection and retention of such data".
"Unless the legislation is updated to reflect these changes, the ability of public authorities to carry out their crime prevention and public safety duties and to counter these threats will be undermined," they added.