All Calls and E-Mails to be Stored in UK?

Privacy Law

Posted May 20, 2008, 09:59 am CDT
By Martha Neil

Updated: Officials in Great Britain are considering a possible plan to store all electronic communications—telephone calls, e-mails, text messages and Internet information—for up to a year in a massive government database, as a potential evidence trove in terrorism cases and other crimes. Phone calls and text messages are already kept: The new legislation would call for the storing of e-mails and voice-over-Internet calls as well.

Although court permission would be required to access the information, civil libertarians and privacy advocates are expected to oppose the Communications Data Bill, according to Reuters.

The Home Office said in a written statement that the move is necessary because "the changes to the way we communicate, due particularly to the Internet revolution, will increasingly undermine our current capabilities to obtain communications data and use it to protect the public."

Additional coverage:

London Times: "‘Big Brother’ database for phones and e-mails"

Updated at 1:05 p.m., central time, to include London Times coverage.

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