England's web of surveillance

On its way to the USA

[Reprinted from Issues & Views July 1, 2002]

In "UK pushes boundaries of citizen surveillance" (Guardian, 6/12/02), Neil McIntosh writes about England's latest surveillance laws:

The news in the UK this week that surveillance powers are to be handed to a host of government departments and other groups takes the use of data retention--the keeping of detailed information on how and with whom we are communicating--to a level not seen anywhere else in the world. The new UK proposals would allow bodies ranging from the Home Office and local councils to Consignia and fire authorities to access the records. The plans have been attacked as a "systematic attack on the right to privacy" by Simon Davies, director of Privacy International. He said yesterday: "I'm not aware of any country with powers given to such a large number (or wide spectrum) of authorities."

Most of the other countries restrict the release of information to a handful of groups--typically, law enforcement agencies and national security agencies. . . .

Meanwhile, the European Parliament last week bowed to pressure from the UK government and police forces, and agreed to force internet service providers and phone companies to keep logs of their users' communications for an as-yet unspecified length of time--possibly several years.

The records will allow investigators to build up a detailed picture of an individual's movements online, including which websites they have visited, the nature of internet searches they have made, and details of whom they emailed and when.

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