The Government is seeking to pass new legislation that will require all internet service providers (ISPs) and telecoms companies to store records of all personal communications for a year. Should you be worried? Read on to find out…
As well as requiring ISPs and telecoms companies to store the data you transfer via their services, the new law would make that information available to a wide range of public bodies (over 650 in fact). They include the police, the fire service, the health service, the Financial Services Authority, the prison service and local councils.
Not only will your data be accessibly by those services, it won’t require permission from a judge. Authorization from a senior police official or similarly placed local government official.
The plan, which has the Orwellian soubriquet of the “Intercept Modernisation Programme”, was originally meant to create an over-arching government database but that ideas was subsequently scrapped after public opposition.
The reframed legislation would still give officials the most comprehensive access to your online data ever. But with the legislation set to come before Parliament after the next election, it may not even make it onto the statute book given the likelihood of a Conservative government.
Shadow home secretary, Chris Grayling, has slammed the plans warning that the powers, though allegedly designed to combat terrorism, could “end up being used for completely different purposes. We have to stop that happening.”
All this and there’s those smart electricity meters getting ready to spy on us too!
TBA | £free | Ministry of Justice (via Telegraph)
