[Infowarrior] - UK: Private firm may track all email and calls

[Richard Forno]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/dec/31/privacy-civil-liberties

Private firm may track all email and calls
'Hellhouse' of personal data will be created, warns former DPP

The private sector will be asked to manage and run a communications  
database that will keep track of everyone's calls, emails, texts and  
internet use under a key option contained in a consultation paper to  
be published next month by Jacqui Smith, the home secretary.

A cabinet decision to put the management of the multibillion pound  
database of all UK communications traffic into private hands would be  
accompanied by tougher legal safeguards to guarantee against leaks and  
accidental data losses.

But in his strongest criticism yet of the superdatabase, Sir Ken  
Macdonald, the former director of public prosecutions, who has  
firsthand experience of working with intelligence and law enforcement  
agencies, told the Guardian such assurances would prove worthless in  
the long run and warned it would prove a "hellhouse" of personal  
private information.

"Authorisations for access might be written into statute. The most  
senior ministers and officials might be designated as scrutineers. But  
none of this means anything," said Macdonald. "All history tells us  
that reassurances like these are worthless in the long run. In the  
first security crisis the locks would loosen."

The home secretary postponed the introduction of legislation to set up  
the superdatabase in October and instead said she would publish a  
consultation paper in the new year setting out the proposal and the  
safeguards needed to protect civil liberties. She has emphasised that  
communications data, which gives the police the identity and location  
of the caller, texter or web surfer but not the content, has been used  
as important evidence in 95% of serious crime cases and almost all  
security service operations since 2004 including the Soham and 21/7  
bombing cases.

Until now most communications traffic data has been held by phone  
companies and internet service providers for billing purposes but the  
growth of broadband phone services, chatrooms and anonymous online  
identities mean that is no longer the case.

The Home Office's interception modernisation programme, which is  
working on the superdatabase proposal, argues that it is no longer  
good enough for communications companies to be left to retrieve such  
data when requested by the police and intelligence services. A Home  
Office spokeswoman said last night the changes were needed so law  
enforcement agencies could maintain their ability to tackle serious  
crime and terrorism.

Senior Whitehall officials responsible for planning for a new database  
say there is a significant difference between having access to  
"communications data" - names and addresses of emails or telephone  
numbers, for example - and the actual contents of the communications.  
"We have been very clear that there are no plans for a database  
containing any content of emails, texts or conversations," the  
spokeswoman said.

External estimates of the cost of the superdatabase have been put as  
high as £12bn, twice the cost of the ID cards scheme, and the  
consultation paper, to be published towards the end of next month,  
will include an option of putting it into the hands of the private  
sector in an effort to cut costs. But such a decision is likely to  
fuel civil liberties concerns over data losses and leaks. Macdonald,  
who left his post as DPP in October, told the Guardian: "The tendency  
of the state to seek ever more powers of surveillance over its  
citizens may be driven by protective zeal. But the notion of total  
security is a paranoid fantasy which would destroy everything that  
makes living worthwhile. We must avoid surrendering our freedom as  
autonomous human beings to such an ugly future. We should make  
judgments that are compatible with our status as free people."

Maintaining the capacity to intercept suspicious communications was  
critical in an increasingly complex world, he said. "It is a process  
which can save lives and bring criminals to justice. But no other  
country is considering such a drastic step. This database would be an  
unimaginable hell-house of personal private information," he said. "It  
would be a complete readout of every citizen's life in the most  
intimate and demeaning detail. No government of any colour is to be  
trusted with such a roadmap to our souls."

The moment there was a security crisis the temptation for more  
commonplace access would be irresistible, he said.

Other critics of the plan point to the problems of keeping the  
database secure, both from the point of view of the technology and of  
deliberate leaks. The problem would be compounded if private companies  
manage the system. "If there is a breach of security in that database  
it would be utterly devastating," one said.