Home Office security minister Vernon Coaker told a Parliamentary
committee that it is considering including social networking site
traffic in its plans to monitor online communications.
The Government is planning to store communications data for 12
months in order to comply with the European Union's Data Retention
Directive. Communications data is information about web use or a
phone call but not its content.
The Data Retention Directive is designed to make it easier for
authorities to investigate and prevent crime.
Members of the Delegated Legislation Committee said, though,
that social networking messaging would circumvent the Government's
retention of details.
"Social networking sites, such as MySpace or Bebo, are not
covered by the Directive," said Coaker. "That is one reason why the
Government are looking at what we should do about the intercept
modernisation programme because there are certain aspects of
communications which are not covered by the Directive."
"[Our planned] intercept modernisation programme proposals…may
include requiring the retention of data on Facebook, Bebo, MySpace
and all other similar sites," he said.
Under the Directive internet service providers (ISPs) must store
the data. The Government's planned intercept modernisation
programme involves the Government itself monitoring and storing the
data. It is a proposal that first came to light last summer.
"I accept that this is an extremely difficult area. The
interface between retaining data, private security and all such
issues of privacy is extremely important," said Coaker. "It is
absolutely right to point out the difficulty of ensuring that we
maintain a capability and a capacity to deal with crime and issues
of national security, and where that butts up against issues of
privacy."
Coaker told MPs that the principle of collecting and storing
data was a good one, and that law enforcement had improved since it
was introduced for telephone calls.
"The co-operation of industry on communications data has saved
lives. That is not an exaggeration," he said. "The regulations
relating to telephony have already been used to place murderers at
the scenes of their crimes, to prevent murders and kidnaps from
taking place and to identify serious sexual offenders who would not
otherwise have been caught as quickly. Internet-related
communications data are just as vital. The final transposition of
the directive will ensure that communications data from all major
types of communication are retained consistently and made available
efficiently."
Coaker was questioned on whether the Government intended to
extend surveillance to the actual content of communications.
"Our consideration of the regulations comes against the backdrop
of an increasingly interventionist approach by the Government into
all of our lives, seemingly taking the maxim 'need to know' to mean
that they need to know everything," said Conservative MP James
Brokenshire. "Will [Coaker] provide further clarification and
confirm that the retention obligations will not apply to an
individual’s web-browsing behaviour – the individual websites that
someone might visit – which might otherwise be captured?"
Coaker said that the Government intended to consult before
introducing any such new law.
"We have not made up our mind. I know the hon. Gentleman keeps
putting that out there. We have said we will consult on a variety
of options," he said.
Facebook chief privacy officer and head of global public policy
Chris Kelly told news website ZDNet UK that the company did not
believe the proposals were the right course of action.
"We think monitoring all user traffic is overkill. There is
legislation to allow law enforcement access to traffic data [of
suspects]. We are not convinced at this time that expansion of
those channels is necessary," he said.
Disclaimer: We hope you find OUT-LAW’s content useful. It’s prepared by the lawyers at Pinsent Masons. Please remember, though, that it’s intended as general information only. It’s not legal advice. If that’s what you’re seeking, please
contact us. See also: our
full disclaimer
