Government plans increased email and social network surveillance:
Proposal echoes Labour scheme that was scrapped in 2009 over concerns it would breach civil liberties
Ministers are to introduce a new law allowing police and security services to extend their monitoring of the public's email and social media communications, the Home Office has confirmed.
It is expected that the new system will allow security officials to scrutinise who is talking to whom and exactly when the conversations are taking plac, but not the content of messages.
Labour tried to introduce a similar system using a central database tracking all phone, text, email and internet use but that was ditched in 2009. It followed concerns raised by internet service providers and mobile phone operators over the project's feasibility, and anxieties over who would foot the bill.
The coalition's proposals are likely to be introduced in the Queen's speech on 9 May and will centre on internet service providers gathering the information and allowing government intelligence operatives to scrutinise it.
"It is vital that police and security services are able to obtain communications data in certain circumstances to investigate serious crime and terrorism and to protect the public," said a Home Office spokesman, who said the plans would be brought forward "as soon as parliamentary time allows".
"We need to take action to maintain the continued availability of communications data as technology changes. Communications data includes time, duration and dialling numbers of a phone call, or an email address. It does not include the content of any phone call or email and it is not the intention of government to make changes to the existing legal basis for the interception of communications."
Civil liberties campaigners have strongly criticised the revival of the plan because of the risk it could breach the privacy of law-abiding Britons.
"Whoever is in government the grand snooping ambitions of security agencies don't change," said Isabella Sankey, director of policy at Liberty.
"The Coalition agreement explicitly promised to 'end unnecessary data retention' and restore our civil liberties. At the very least we need less secret briefing and more public consultation if this promise is to be abandoned".
The intention to introduce the new system was signalled in the Strategic Defence and Security Review, published in 2010. It announced that as part of efforts to counter international terrorism, the government would "introduce a programme to preserve the ability of the security, intelligence and law enforcement agencies to obtain communication data and to intercept communications within the appropriate legal framework".
It said communications data has played a role in every major counter-terrorism operation carried out by the security services and in 95% of all serious organised crime investigations.
It said any changes would be "compatible with the government's approach to information storage and civil liberties".
Ministers are to introduce a new law allowing police and security services to extend their monitoring of the public's email and social media communications, the Home Office has confirmed.
It is expected that the new system will allow security officials to scrutinise who is talking to whom and exactly when the conversations are taking plac, but not the content of messages.
Labour tried to introduce a similar system using a central database tracking all phone, text, email and internet use but that was ditched in 2009. It followed concerns raised by internet service providers and mobile phone operators over the project's feasibility, and anxieties over who would foot the bill.
The coalition's proposals are likely to be introduced in the Queen's speech on 9 May and will centre on internet service providers gathering the information and allowing government intelligence operatives to scrutinise it.
"It is vital that police and security services are able to obtain communications data in certain circumstances to investigate serious crime and terrorism and to protect the public," said a Home Office spokesman, who said the plans would be brought forward "as soon as parliamentary time allows".
"We need to take action to maintain the continued availability of communications data as technology changes. Communications data includes time, duration and dialling numbers of a phone call, or an email address. It does not include the content of any phone call or email and it is not the intention of government to make changes to the existing legal basis for the interception of communications."
Civil liberties campaigners have strongly criticised the revival of the plan because of the risk it could breach the privacy of law-abiding Britons.
"Whoever is in government the grand snooping ambitions of security agencies don't change," said Isabella Sankey, director of policy at Liberty.
"The Coalition agreement explicitly promised to 'end unnecessary data retention' and restore our civil liberties. At the very least we need less secret briefing and more public consultation if this promise is to be abandoned".
The intention to introduce the new system was signalled in the Strategic Defence and Security Review, published in 2010. It announced that as part of efforts to counter international terrorism, the government would "introduce a programme to preserve the ability of the security, intelligence and law enforcement agencies to obtain communication data and to intercept communications within the appropriate legal framework".
It said communications data has played a role in every major counter-terrorism operation carried out by the security services and in 95% of all serious organised crime investigations.
It said any changes would be "compatible with the government's approach to information storage and civil liberties".
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