The government has
given £1bn to the electronic intelligence service, GCHQ, to
pilot
a database to collect information about telephone and computer
communications.
This is part of the the so-called
Interception Modernisation Programme (IMP) which aims to use
the information to profile suspects and their personal
networks.
A central database would allow intelligence agencies to
interrogate it directly, said a source familiar with the proposals.
"This would speed up answers to questions such as 'How many people
have more than one mobile phone or internet account with different
service providers?'" he said
Newspaper reports on Sunday said the proposed database could
cost £12bn. It would involve intelligence agents installing "black
boxes" to do "deep packet inspection" of ISP and telco traffic and
copy information to their own database, they said.
A Home Office spokesman said no decision had been taken on
IMP.
Assistant information commissioner Jonathan Bamford said earlier
that a centralised database "might well be a step too far". He
said, "We are not aware of any justification for the state to hold
every UK citizen's phone and internet records. We have real doubts
that such a measure can be justified, or is proportionate or
desirable."
A source familiar with the IMP said the intelligence services
saw themselves losing the ability to trace telephone calls made
over the internet. "They are just looking for a return to the
status quo of the 1980s, when they could tap phones and open mail
and know with a high degree of certainty who sent it and who got
it," the source said.
The Home Office is
consulting on how to comply with the European data retention
directive. This would make ISPs and other communications
services providers collect and store details such as who called
whom and when.
Many already collect and keep such data for billing purposes,
but most do not keep it online for more than three months. The
directive says local laws can vary the retention period from six to
24 months the UK has settled at 12.
A Home Office spokesman said the Home Office's preference was
for "Option 4", a plan outlined in a discussion document now doing
the rounds. This plan calls for a set of regulations that
• allows the government to reimburse public communications
providers for additional costs
• makes provisions to avoid duplicated retention of
communications data, and
• requires communications data to be retained for a year.
The Home Office estimated the plan will cost £30.35m in capital
and £16.23m to run for eight years. The consultation closes on 31
October 2008.