The parliamentary Home Affairs Committee has urged the
government to stop creating large databases on citizens without
proving they are necessary first.
The Home Affairs Committee report comes after government plans
to create a giant database of citizens' phone and e-mail records
recently came to light.
This planned database is reportedly intended to help the police
and other agencies counter serious crime and terrorism.
In its report,
A Surveillance Society?, the Home Affairs Committee calls on
the government to "adopt a principle of data minimisation".
It also says the governement should only hold data "for as long
as is necessary".
The government should also "resist a tendency to collect more
personal information and establish larger databases", says the
report.
