statism watch

Between this issue and multinational pushes for DNA databases, GPS-tracked road tolls, and the shared no-fly lists evidence continues to pile up to support the view that national policy is already being written at a transnational level – announcements that ISPs will have to hold massive databases of user information have already been made recently in Canada and the US, and the NSA fully intends to datamine this information.

Flashback: US Bill proposes ISPs, Wi-Fi keep logs for police | The Spy Factory: The New Thought Police | New law to give police access to online exchanges | Private firm may administer UK surveillance database | US military targets social nets | UK Security services want personal data from sites like Facebook

Alan Travis
April 27, 2009

Home secretary rules out state-run ‘super-database’ but firms would store details of calls, emails, texts and web browsing

The home secretary, Jacqui Smith, today ruled out building a single state “super-database” to track everybody’s use of email, internet, text messages and social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

Smith said creating a single database run by the state to hold such personal data would amount to an extreme solution representing an unwarranted intrusion of personal privacy. [Ed. Note: Wait for it, wait for it...]

Instead the Home Office is looking at a £2bn solution that would involve requiring communications companies such as BT, Virgin Media, O2 and others to retain such personal data for up to 12 months.

The decision to abandon a state central database is a setback for the police and security services who wanted rapid access to the data while conducting counter-terror and crime investigations. Instead they will have to apply for the data to be released to them on a case-by-case basis to each individual telecoms and internet company.

Smith, publishing a consultation paper detailing the private sector solution, said: “Advances in communications mean that there are ever more sophisticated ways to communicate and we need to ensure that we keep up with the technology being used by those who would seek to do us harm.”

She said it was essential that the police and other crime-fighting agencies had the tools they needed to do their job. “However, to be clear there are absolutely no plans for a single central store. We recognise that there is a delicate balance between privacy and security, but to do nothing is not an option as we would be failing in our duty to protect the public.”

She argued that more privacy concerns were raised by the proposal to store all the personal communications data in a state-run single database than individual private companies retaining the information for access by the police and security services as and when they needed it.

The home secretary said the cost of the project was around £2bn over 10 years, far short of speculation that it could be as high as £12bn.

The Home Office consultation paper published today was originally expected in the early new year but has been delayed by an intense cabinet debate over whether or not to go ahead with the state database.

The paper makes clear that the Home Office regards it as technically the best option, describing it as “the least challenging technically to implement and the cheapest to build and run”.

But it adds that the government “recognises the privacy implications in holding all communications data from the UK in a 12-month period in a single store. The government therefore does not propose to pursue this approach.”

Instead communications companies are to be required by legislation to ensure that all traffic data — who sent a text to whom at what time and from where — is collected and kept in Britain. They will also be asked to store additional third-party data crossing their networks including phone calls and internet use from outside Europe.

This goes far beyond the current data collected for billing purposes. The companies will also be asked to organise the data — for example, matching it where it relates to the same person so that the authorities can access it in a form that is immediately usable.

Smith said that while the new system could record a visit to a social network such as Facebook, it would not record personal and private information such as photos or messages posted to a page.

“What we are talking about is who is at one end [of a communication] and who is at the other — and how they are communicating,” she said.

Shami Chakrabarti, the director of Liberty, said the details of the policy remained unclear. “The Home Office has been sending out conflicting signals on the superdatabase for some months, frantically briefing journalists in private but failing to publish any detailed proposals,” she said. “If this statement from the home secretary marks a genuine change of direction on privacy policy, we will welcome it. However, it might be wise to read the small print first,” she said.

Source | See Also under Tracking: Australian nightclub installs face-scanning security system | UK: Children to be tracked by sat nav to stop bad behaviour | Alberta bars could collect names, photos under proposed bill | UK: DNA pioneer Alec Jeffreys: drop innocent from database | Microchip in a pill to monitor your meds | French legislators reject internet piracy bill | Following Bush lead, Obama moves to block challenge to wiretapping program | UK: Big Brother row as police start using camera cars to fine wayward drivers | Big Brother is watching: surveillance box to track drivers is backed | Britain may snoop on social websites | Moratorium sought on RFID driver’s licenses | Right to privacy broken by a quarter of UK’s public databases, says report | Smart licences now available for border-hopping Quebecers | Internet ad tracking system will put a ’spy camera’ in the homes of millions, warns founder of the web | NSA Dominance of Cybersecurity Would Lead to ‘Grave Peril’, Ex-Cyber Chief Tells Congress | French government accused of ‘Big Brother’ tactics over internet piracy | US Terrorist watch list hits 1 million | NY Times: Mileage Tax Would ‘Track Where Motorists Have Been’ | UK police maintain databank on thousands of protesters | UK: Government plans to keep DNA samples of innocent | UK: DNA details of 1.1m children on database | UK security whitepaper urges ‘end of privacy’ | US Bill proposes ISPs, Wi-Fi keep logs for police | The Spy Factory: The New Thought Police | New law to give police access to online exchanges | Google to enter market for energy use tracking | Electronic immunization records needed: Toronto health official | Controversial US measure would require DNA sampling at arrest | UK-Irish travellers to face passport checks | U.S. visitors now required to register online with Department of Homeland Security | GPS wristwatch helps parents track children | UK: Face scanners to be installed in schools | Regulator will force cellphone companies to adopt GPS tracking system | Military challenge: Make spy data more accessible | UK: ‘Spy-in-sky’ trials get the go-ahead despite Government promise to scrap road-pricing plan | Private firm may administer UK surveillance database | Calls for GPS-tracked ’speed-limiting’ cars in UK | Oregon Governor Wants GPS-Tracked Vehicle Mileage Tax | UK Culture secretary wants international age restrictions for web | Is road-tolls fix running out of gas? | Has your child been CAFed? How the Government plans to record intimate information on every child in Britain | Cyberbullying verdict turns rule-breakers into criminals | European court rules DNA database breaches human rights | London musicians expected to disclose ethnicity, 8 pages of personal information to perform | Myspace terms of use could become fulcrum for destruction of online anonymity in precedent setting case | Former US congresswoman, presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney barred from boarding plane to human rights conference | Retired B.C. woman surprised to find herself on international no-fly list | Indonesian AIDS patients face microchip monitoring | Tribunal shouldn’t police online hate, report says | Jim Flaherty Urging Greater Federal, International Control over Canadian economy | Road tolls called ‘inevitable’ | Coming soon to your cellphone: Your credit card via RFID chip | Federal government stages another retreat on road tolls | Federal Road Toll Meeting Sponsorship Kept Quiet Until After Election | Flaherty calls for mandatory IMF surveillance | UK Home Secretary: People ‘can’t wait’ for biometric ID cards | ‘Smart’ Credit Cards, Pilot Project set the Groundwork for Wireless Credit Wallets | Google’s growth makes privacy advocates wary | Parents, children to be fingerprinted at initial 250+ nursery schools in UK | Police will use new device to take fingerprints in street, vendors say face scanning next | US military targets social nets | UK Shortly to Become Worse Surveillance Society than Stasi East Germany | UK Security services want personal data from sites like Facebook | Software blocks car phone users | Big brother to track all emails, internet history and telephone calls under UK plan | New surveillance program will turn military satellites on US | Mobile phones to track carbon footprint using GPS | Metrolinx considering road to lls after all | Red light cameras not going up fast enough for Toronto budget | First it’s ‘For the Children’: Microsoft working to ID you online | Global ‘Intelligent Transport’ initiative comes to your cellphone: Location data used to track traffic flow | GPS Mapping Systems Enable Police Tracking | Texas truant students to be tracked by GPS anklets | Satellites track Mexico kidnap victims with implanted chips | Security officials to scan D.C. area license plates | How Big Brother watches your every move | Federal parolees to wear tracking anklets in pilot project | Scots schoolchildren to be fingerprinted in controversial ID scheme | Beijing Taxis Are Bugged ‘For Driver Safety’ | Saskatchewan adopting US-mandated ID card, to include RFID chip, facial recognition | UK DNA database turns ‘innocents into criminals’, warns watchdog | Eye scans, fingerprints to control NZ borders | Drivers licences with chips spark heated debate | Behavioral Targeting: ‘It’s Only Going to Get Creepier’ | Bluetooth is watching: secret study gives Bath a flavour of Big Brother | Britain considers giant database of all phone calls, EMails, browsing history | Bush approves surveillance bill | Mobile Phone Users Secretly Tracked for Behaviorist Study | Every adult in Britain should be forced to carry ‘carbon ration cards’, say MPs | Criticism for ‘UK database’ plan | Pay-As-You-Drive Car Insurance | Metrolinx Proposes Satellite Vehicle Tracking for Road Tolls | Canada on way to brave new world of surveillance | West Virginia: Bill Turns Traffic Cameras into Spy Cameras | Toronto part of ‘transnational mega-region’ | Vancouver to import road tolls from UK | UK proposes national road tolls to cut congestion | Motorists to pay London toll | Government moving to access personal info, sparking privacy fears | Give public biometrics the finger

This entry was posted on Monday, April 27th, 2009 at 12:00 pm and is filed under privacy, surveillance. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.