27 April 2009
The Home Secretary today makes a delayed announcement of a consultation on proposals for the so-called Intercept Modernisation Programme. It has been widely reported for some months, and plans were acknowledged by Lord West the security minister last week[1], that this would place Home Office 'probes' in the datacentres of every British internet provider at an estimated cost of £12 billion.
This would allow direct skimming of all traffic, making it massively easier to intercept email and monitor individual's web use using existing powers. The Home Office would become a clearing-house, able to provide data ad lib to other government agencies. It would also become possible for the first time to collect and store details of all communications by everyone in the country so that government agencies could investigate friendship networks and personal habits using data-mining techniques [2].
Guy Herbert, General Secretary of NO2ID [3] said:
'Just a week after the Home Secretary announced a public consultation on some trivial trimming of local authority surveillance, we have this: a proposal for powers more intrusive than any police state in history.
'Ministers are making a distinction between content and communications data into sound-bite of the year. But it is spurious. Officials from dozens of departments and quangos could know what you read online, and who all your friends are, who you emailed, when, and where you were when you did so - all without a warrant[4]. Tracking your your every move is more efficiently creepy than reading your letters.'
-ENDS-
Notes for editors:
1) See, for example: The Register 'Spy chiefs size up net snoop gear'
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/04/21/imp_dpi/
2) As suggested by Sir David Omand in his 'A discussion paper for the ippr Commission on National Security for the 21st Century'
'Finding out other people's secrets is going to involve breaking everyday moral rules.' - But the Home Office's use of such a super-database is *not* limited to intelligence work - see note 4.
3) NO2ID is a national, non-partisan campaign against ID cards and the database state. See http://www.no2id.net/dbstate.php for a list of other 'database state' initiatives that NO2ID is actively opposing, and http://www.no2id.net/datasharing for how they fit together.
4) Under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000, the Home Secretary's - not a court's - warrant is required to read mail or listen to phone calls. But all the following may authorise themselves to examine communications data for their own purposes:
43 police forces in England & Wales
8 police forces in Scotland
Police Service of Northern Ireland
British Transport Police
Port of Liverpool Police
Port of Dover Police
Royal Military Police
Royal Air Force Police
Civil Nuclear Constabulary
Ministry of Defence Police
Royal Navy Police
Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs
Serious Organised Crime Agency
Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency
United Kingdom Border Agency.
The Prison Service
Approximately 474 local authorities throughout the UK.
Approximately 110 *other* public authorities, including
almost all government departments, and
Serious Fraud Office
Independent Police Complaints Commission
Charity Commission
Gambling Commission
Royal Mail
to name only a few.
(source: report of the Chief Surveillance Commissioner
http://www.official-documents.gov.uk/document/hc0708/hc09/0947/0947.pdf )
For further information, or for immediate or future interview, please
contact:
Phil Booth (National Co-ordinator, national.coordinator@no2id.net) on 07974 230 839
Guy Herbert (General Secretary, general.secretary@no2id.net) on 07956 544 308
Michael Parker (Press Officer, press.officer@no2id.net) on 07773 376 166
The NO2ID Campaign
Box 412
19-21 Crawford Street
London W1H 1PJ
enquiries@no2id.net
Tel: 07005 800 651
Press: click here
