ISPs to Begin Storing Internet Users’ Personal Web Data
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It’s not just Google, Yahoo! or MSN who have been subject to concerns by users over privacy in recent months. Controversial new legislation to have Internet Service Providers (ISPs) store details of internet users’ emails, web browsing, instant messaging and internet phone calls comes into force today.
The enhanced legislation follows on from an existing EU directive which is already in effect and currently applies to telecoms providers, although it will now be extended to incorporate ISPs. The original directive came into force in the wake of the 2005 London bombing. Up until now, however, ISPs and telecoms firms have resisted the proposals, while in some EU countries the directive has been subject to challenge.
Under the new legislation, all ISPs in the European Union will be required to retain and store records of all internet traffic, including emails, website browsing, instant messenger and VoIP traffic. However, the data stored does not include content, merely the sender and recipient(s) of such communications. Its purpose will be to determine connections between individuals as part of a crackdown in the ongoing war against terrorism and to “protect public safety and national security”.
Privacy campaigners have voiced concerns about the new legislation as a breach of internet users’ privacy and casting suspicion on innocent users, and have also stated that the introduction of the new legislation is a step towards the implementation of an oft-mooted, but never confirmed government central database which lies at the core of the Home Office’s planned Intercept Modernisation Programme. However, the whole concept of a centralised database has come under fierce condemnation in the wake of recent high-profile loss of data across government agencies and the military, as well as government plans to introduce ID cards for all UK citizens.
Phil Noble, spokesman of privacy group NO2ID, said of the new legislation: “This is the kind of technology that the Stasi would have dreamed of… we are facing a co-ordinated strategy to track everyone’s communications, creating a dossier on every person’s relationships and transactions.
“It is clearly preparatory work for the as-yet un-revealed plans for intercept modernisation.”
As recently as last week, the Independent newspaper reported on a plan by the Government to monitor millions of Britons’ interaction on social networking sites, with data to be stored on a ‘Big Brother’ database - which civil liberties campaigners called a “snoopers’ charter”.
Data stored under the new legislation will be accessible by the Police and the security services, public bodies and local councils but they must first obtain a warrant in accordance with the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA). ISPs will be compensated for the additional resources and costs required in retaining the data.
An ETNO-compiled report in 2004 found that a large internet service provider would need to store of the equivalent of 40 trillion emails - between 20,000 and 40,000 terabytes of data - if it was required to keep all traffic data for 12 months.
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