Flies and Bikes Blog

It would seem as though the UK government has quietly performed an about turn and revived the Intercept Modernisation Plan ('Surveillance state' fear as government revives tracking plan | UK news | The Guardian).  As The Guardian reports:

A £2bn plan to allow the police and security services to track the email, text, internet and mobile phone details of everyone in Britain is to be revived, the Home Office has confirmed. The coalition agreement promised to scrap the "surveillance state" plan by pledging to "end the storage of internet and email records without good reason". Both Conservatives and Liberal Democrats voiced criticism in opposition. But the project, known as the interception modernisation programme, has been quietly revived - a decision buried in the back pages of the strategic defence and security review published this week. Senior Home Office officials have confirmed that legislation is being prepared.

You might have thought that in the current climate of swingeing cuts in public expenditure this might have remained axed.  But no, it's back. The plan doesn't yet include retention of the content of messages (but as ever, beware of 'function creep').