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Black box 'will collect every email, web visit in UK'
Wednesday, 5 November 2008
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Internet "black boxes" will be used to collect every email and web visit in the UK under the Government's plans for a giant "big brother" database, The Independent has learnt.
Home Office officials have told senior figures from the internet and telecommunications industries that the "black box" technology could automatically retain and store raw data from the web before transferring it to a giant central database controlled by the Government.
Plans to create a database holding information about every phone call, email and internet visit made in the UK have provoked a huge public outcry. Richard Thomas, the Information Commissioner, described it as "step too far" and the Government's own terrorism watchdog said that as a "raw idea" it was "awful".
Nevertheless, ministers have said they are committed to consulting on the new Communications Data Bill early in the new year. News that the Government is already preparing the ground by trying to allay the concerns of the internet industry is bound to raise suspicions about ministers' true intentions. Further details of the database emerged on Monday at a meeting of internet service providers (ISPs) in London where representatives from BT, AOL Europe, O2 and BSkyB were given a PowerPoint presentation of the issues and the technology surrounding the Government's Interception Modernisation Programme (IMP), the name given by the Home Office to the database proposal.
Whitehall experts working on the IMP unit told the meeting the security and intelligence agencies wanted to use the stored data to help fight serious crime and terrorism, and said the technology would allow them to create greater "capacity" to monitor all communication traffic on the internet. The "black boxes" are an attractive option for the internet industry because they would be secure and not require any direct input from the ISPs.
During the meeting Whitehall officials also tried to reassure the industry by suggesting that many smaller ISPs would be unaffected by the "black boxes" as these would be installed upstream on the network and hinted that all costs would be met by the Government.
"It was clear the 'back box' is the technology the Government will use to hold all the data. But what isn't clear is what the Home Secretary, GCHQ and the security services intend to do with all this information in the future," said a source close to the meeting.
He added: "They said they only wanted to return to a position they were in before the emergence of internet communication, when they were able to monitor all correspondence with a police suspect. The difference here is they will be in a much better position to spy on many more people on the basis of their internet behaviour. Also there's a grey area between what is content and what is traffic. Is what is said in a chat room content or just traffic?"
Ministers say plans for the database have not been confirmed, and that it is not their intention to introduce monitoring or storage equipment that will check or hold the content of emails or phonecalls on the traffic.
A spokesman for the Home Office said that Monday's meeting provided a "chance to engage with small communication service providers" ahead of the formal public consultation next year. He added: "We need to work closely with the internet service providers and the communication service providers. The meeting was to show the top-line challenges faced in the future. We are public about the IMP, but we are still working out the detail. There will a consultation on the Communications Data Bill early next year."
A spokesman for the Internet Service Providers Association said the organisation was pleased the Home Office had addressed its members and was keen to continue dialogue while awaiting a formal consultation.
Database plans were first announced by the Prime Minister in February. It is not clear where the records will be held but GCHQ may eventually be the project's home.
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Seems like George Orwell's fantasy is coming true.
Posted by Concerned and worried | 15.12.08, 21:13 GMT
bring it on!!!
end cyber crime now!!!
imagine every paedophile is sent down with the evidence gathered,
but wait,
imagine the cost of building all those prisions just for sex offenders, staffing them, feeding them, giving them money and housing them after, never mind catching them again, and so on and so on ect.ect.......
Posted by yeeehaaaaaaa | 06.11.08, 03:56 GMT
So plans for the database "haven't been confirmed"? Seems like it to me! I suspect public consultation will be a mere window-dressing exercise, though most posts when this story has been featured are negative. While the economy is going to get a lot worse at least £12 billion of taxpayers' money is coming from our bottomless pockets so we (the enemy within) can be spied on!
I'm already considering carrying my mobile phone less or leaving it off more because of what I've read. If you read the conditions underneath the box you type text in it says your IP address will be logged by this website. If the government wanted to track you down it could, very easily. So maybe time to unplug the internet...
Posted by Michael | 06.11.08, 03:42 GMT
Surely plans like this must be in breach of privacy laws? I can see the point of monitoring the activities of known criminals and people suspected of being involved in criminal matters, but not the population as a whole.
Posted by MARC | 05.11.08, 23:56 GMT
Although it is a very good idea for pedophiles and terrorists, to the ordinary people it smacks of Big Brother big time.
Posted by Jaclyn | 05.11.08, 22:41 GMT
I only have two words to say to the government on this subject. One of them is "off"!
Posted by Centaur | 05.11.08, 18:55 GMT
Disgraceful - the sooner this shower of worthless Labour charlatans are ousted from power, the better for us all.
1884 - a reality in 2008. Brown must go.
Posted by neal | 05.11.08, 17:36 GMT
So will they be monitoring EVERYTHING.. access to all email's, msn coversation's.
Ridiculous, what's the point in all this ?
Posted by K | 05.11.08, 14:56 GMT
Sorry Vlad. Communism????? Just 'cox FOX claims we have a left wing government dont make it so me old china.
Its not just extreme left wing govts that dont respect peoples rights to privacy. Bush more or less abolished the Bill of Rights with the Homeland Security Act and last I heard he was a right wing fundamentalist god botherer.
Posted by Dan Sweeney | 05.11.08, 14:29 GMT
Get yer own grip Richard.
I respect others' privacy...
I expect the same
Posted by SP | 05.11.08, 14:21 GMT
So for all of those against this...
Was information sharing monitored before the internet age? Of course it was.
If you do nothing wrong then you have nothing to worry about.
Get a grip some of you!
Posted by Richard F | 05.11.08, 13:01 GMT
Eagle eye is always watching...
Posted by Eagle Eye | 05.11.08, 11:59 GMT
‘You are the dead,’ repeated the iron voice.
‘Remain exactly where you are. Make no movement until you are ordered.’
Pesky thought-criminals....
Posted by Orwell.... | 05.11.08, 11:49 GMT
Anybody seen Eagle Eye?.........
Posted by catriona | 05.11.08, 11:00 GMT
MENTAL.
The Thought Police are next to be recruited
Posted by SP | 05.11.08, 10:42 GMT
I have nothing to hide! Inane chat with friends, making arrangements or forwarding silly jokes! If it's all harmless stuff the majority of us use internet and email for, what's the harm!
Posted by BOSS | 05.11.08, 10:36 GMT
Whats all this nonsense about a democracy?
No one apart from the government want this. We the people pay the taxes and we don't want this. The government and its employees are in place to serve US not some nut job looking to have supreme power!
The sooner Labour and ejected from position the better.
A revolution is needed to bring these criminals of freedom to their knees! Oops, maybe this will be recorded as a 'terrorist' threat! Better scrap that.
This place makes me sick!
Posted by The Real Liam | 05.11.08, 10:20 GMT
More grist for the Secret Police. This proposal tells us how committed the Labour Government is to freedom, democracy and the Rule of Law.
However, the unlimited incompetence of government in data security means that shadowy others will be able to read your mail and examine your internet interests secretly and exploit this information in blackmail, identity theft and all sorts of scams.
People will be less safe. Society will be threated by cyber-crime and become even less stable.
Posted by Peter Hirsch | 05.11.08, 10:03 GMT
Why? what is the need for this?
Posted by T J McClean | 05.11.08, 09:34 GMT
Way to go Communisim is showing its true colours!!!
Posted by Vlad Gernetsky | 05.11.08, 09:13 GMT