Last chance to comment on draft Communications Data Bill

Consultation closing on government's proposed 'snoopers' charter'

Time is running out for people to submit comments in response to the draft Communications Data Bill, the proposed legislation that would allow the collection of data on people's phone, email and web-browsing habits for mass surveillance by the intelligence services, police and other public-sector bodies.

Since October 2007 telecoms companies have been legally obliged to keep all records of phone calls and mobile text messages for 12 months. The Bill would extend the coverage to record website visited, email messages sent and received and voice of IP (VoIP) data. Furthermore, public-sector organisations would have the right to access such data without court authorisation.

Comments can be submitted on the www.parliament.uk website.

The short period set aside for public consultation, which will end on Thursday 23 August, has been criticised by privacy campaigners for its brevity and for concluding during the summer holiday period.

"The proposals run counter to some of the basic principles of a liberal, democratic society - a society where there should be a presumption of innocence rather than of suspicion, and where privacy is the norm rather than the exception," wrote Dr Paul Bernal, lecturer in information technology, intellectual property and media law at the University of East Anglia Law School.

A PDF copy of the draft Bill can be downloaded from the Home Office website.

Skype, for example, could be required to record calls made and received by its users, as a result of its recent re-architecting, which centralised the routing of calls via servers in place of its original peer-to-peer design.

"The Communications Data Bill is intended to compel UK internet service providers and telcos to store 'communications data' (i.e. traffic data, usage data and subscriber data) for up to 12 months, including the time, duration, location, originator and recipient of messages sent via email, VoIP and telephone services. This will also include details of the websites visited by any user, and access to social networking services, such as Facebook and Twitter," said Patrick Clark, head of telecoms at law firm Taylor Wessing.

He added: "The content of any messages sent, received or viewed is not caught, but this obviously requires the collection and storage of a wide range of information that is not necessarily kept at the moment and from which any person with access would be able to learn an awful lot about the interests and activities of any person."

Even more ominously, the law will take the power of the much-criticised Regulatory of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) even further, said Clark. "Court orders will no longer be necessary to access specific information - all that would be required is for officers to be investigating a crime, or working in the 'interest' of protecting national security."

Last chance to comment on draft Communications Data Bill

Consultation closing on government's proposed 'snoopers' charter'

The interest of protecting national security, however, is frequently a highly elastic calculation, say lawyers. Many campaigners have said that it will push more and more people into using anonymising services and to make greater use of encryption in order to keep their data from the prying eyes of public officials.

However, while the law may be subject to amendment, it is based on the European Union Data Retention Directive of 2006 and Parliament may therefore have little choice but to pass it in one form or other.

It was originally introduced to Parliament in 2008 under the same name and with the same provisions. At the time, the-then Liberal Democrat Home Affairs spokesman Chris Huhne said: "The government's Orwellian plans for a vast database of our private communications are deeply worrying."

Now, with the Liberal Democrats forming part of the coalition government, Huhne and his Liberal Democrat colleagues will be voting through almost exactly the same legislation.

Likewise, Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservatives in opposition pledged to put an end to the surveillance state.

Independent barrister in practice, Francis Davey, warned that the Bill would massively increase the surveillance powers of the government and government agencies. In a blog post, he wrote:

"The bill is all about increasing the amount of communications data that the authorities can get hold of. It does this in two principal ways:

"(1) By giving an essentially unlimited power to the government to order anyone to do anything rationally connected with that aim (and presumably proportionate and human rights compliant - though that may result in much time-consuming litigation); and,

"(2) By widening the scope of people who can be asked to give up communications data to anyone who controls any communications equipment - in practice, almost everyone old enough to own a mobile telephone."