UPDATE: See: UK Government postponed new surveillance powers,
OUT-LAW News, 19/06/2002, which supercedes this story.
Among other matters, the RIP Act included powers that allow
notices to be served on telcos, ISPs and postal operators to obtain
information such as the name and address of users, the phone
numbers they call, the source and destination of e-mails, the
identity of web sites viisted and mobile phone location data.
These powers have not yet been brought into force. It now seems
that they will be amended before being introduced, to extend the
range of bodies that will have access to the data.
Ian Brown, Director of think tank the Foundation for Information
Policy Research commented:
"I am appalled at this huge increase in the
scope of Government snooping. Two years ago, we were deeply
concerned that these powers were to be given to the police without
any judicial oversight. Now they're handing them out to a
practically endless queue of bureaucrats in Whitehall and Town
Halls."
The Act originally gave access to the following bodies: the
police and other law enforcement and intelligence bodies, Customs
and Excise and the Inland Revenue.
The RIP (Communications Data: Additional Public Authorities)
Order of 2002 extends this to include, among others: Departments of
Health, Environment, Trade and Industry and Enterprise, the Home
Office, local authorities and councils, the Financial Services
Agency, the Food Standards Agency, the Information Commissioner,
the Office of Fair Trading and bodies regulated by the Postal
Services Act, such as Consignia, formerly the Post Office.
Brown concluded:
"Which web sites we visit or where we travel
with a mobile phone in our pocket reveals a great deal of personal
information. Accessing this information needs to be made more
difficult, not opened up to this huge range of new enquirers. I
look at this list and wonder not at who they've added, but if I can
possibly think of anyone they've left out."
The text
of the draft Order, which is expected to be debated by the
Commons on 18th June.
Update: This page has been removed
from the HMSO site. However, the Google search engine did cache the
page..
The text
of the RIP Act
