Home Secretary Jacqui Smith is planning to implement even more draconian snooping powers that previously reported, according to a report in the Telegraph.
In an astonishing non sequitur, Smith is quoted as saying that communications data of the sort which helped convict Soham killer Ian Huntley and the 21/7 bombers was not at present being routinely stored, and needed to be if terrorists and serious criminals were to be prevented from striking. So what Smith appears to be saying is that phone call evidence of the type that was used to convict people after committing a crime could be used to collar them before committing a crime. Now here we have a distinct sense of thoughtcrime.
Apparently the plan does not include recording the content of messages, and would be subject to appropriate safeguards (though I doubt that what I regard as appropriate would map exactly to Smith's).
Public consultation will begin in the New Year: expect a few more terror scares to bounce public opinion to sleepwalk into ever greater surveillance of our communications.
The original proposals were due to be presented in the Communications Bill next month. In actual fact, if this bill was to contain the previously reported measures, it's hard to see how they could be any more draconian. Communication Service providers already store much data for billing purposes, but the security services need to make a case to access these data, under RIPA regulations. It appears they want untrammelled access to our private communications and access to social networking sites
More on this from the Guardian:
The government is drawing up plans to give the police and security and intelligence agencies new powers to access personal data held by internet services, including social network sites such as Facebook and Bebo and gaming networks.
JUST BECAUSE THE TECHNOLOGY EXISTS TO INTERCEPT AND RECORD OUR COMMUNICATIONS DOESN'T MEAN THEY SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO.
Vile, vile, vile - and don't expect the next government (or whatever party) to do away with these systems.
Updates 16/10/08
Report on the BBC News website - nice quotes from the LibDems; a bit of a wishy washy response from the Conservatives.
Jacqui Smith:
There are no plans for an enormous database which will contain the content of your emails, the texts that you send or the chats you have on the phone or online.
No plans now, but next year?
Nor are we going to give local authorities the power to trawl through such a database in the interest of investigating lower level criminality under the spurious cover of counter terrorist legislation.
Local authorities do not have the power to listen to your calls now and they never will in future. You would rightly object to proposals of this kind and I would not consider them.
Oh yes? We've already had local authorities using RIPA powers to spy on people! Ever heard of function creep?
Dominic Grieve (Conservative):
"These proposals would mark a substantial shift in the powers of the state to obtain personal information on individuals," he said, adding: "The government must present convincing justification for such an exponential increase in the powers of the state."
Chris Huhne (Liberal Democrats):
The government's Orwellian plans for a vast database of our private communications are deeply worrying.
Ministers claim the database will only be used in terrorist cases, but there is now a long list of cases, from the arrest of Walter Wolfgang for heckling at a Labour conference to the freezing of Icelandic assets, where anti-terrorism law has been used for purposes for which it was not intended.
Our experience of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act suggests these powers will soon be used to spy on people's children, pets and bins.
These proposals are incompatible with a free country and a free people.
The Independent weighs in.