Six out of 10 Britons polled have objected to a
European directive to store electronic communications details,
which came into force in the UK this month.
The
poll by PoliticsHome for Metro, the London morning free
newspaper, found that 60% of 1,247 Britons polled did not want
details of the time, location and parties to e-mails, internet and
phone calls to be recorded to help the fight against terrorism and
serious organised crime.
Less than a quarter approved of the measure, which the
government estimates will cost taxpayers £45.7m to implement.
Although the legislation covers all "communications service
providers", Computer Weekly has learned that
not all internet service providers are expected to collect the
data.
This raises questions over the completeness and therefore
effectiveness of the government's measures.
Some 58% of those polled felt the information would get into the
wrong hands. More six out of 10 felt the government already knew
too much about them. Only 10% were reassured by the fact that
companies rather than government stored the data, and only 15%
believed the data were stored securely.
Nearly four out of 10 thought most criminals already knew how to
avoid being tracked, so retaining the data would be
ineffective.
Some 56% agreed with the statement, "Give me my privacy back:
this has gone too far. They can't secure it, they
are collecting more and more, and I do not want to live in a big
brother state."
One third agreed with the statement: "The state should have
access to data about its people for security purposes - as long as
it is not abused, I think the current levels, including these
proposals, are about right."