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<div id="main-article-info"> [ perhaps a workshop on what the
south can learn from the advanced democracies on regulation of
the net may be useful...]<br>
Plans for extra email and web monitoring powers spark privacy
fears
<p id="stand-first" class="stand-first-alone">Conservative MP
David Davis leads criticism of coalition's bid to revive extra
powers to snoop on emails and social media</p>
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<div class="contributer-full"> <a class="contributor"
rel="author"
href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/helenemulholland">
Hélène Mulholland</a> and <a class="contributor"
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href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/robertbooth">
Robert Booth</a> </div>
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<li class="publication"> <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk">guardian.co.uk</a>,
<time datetime="2012-04-02T10:03BST" pubdate="">Monday 2 April
2012 10.03 BST</time> </li>
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src="cid:part10.04030104.06040704@gmail.com" alt="david
davis" height="276" width="460">
<div class="caption">David Davis MP has criticised plans for
extra powers to monitor emails and internet use as
unnecessary Photograph: Martin Argles for the Guardian</div>
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<p><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/daviddavis"
title="More from guardian.co.uk on David Davis">David
Davis</a>, the former Conservative shadow home secretary,
has warned that government plans to introduce a law allowing
<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/police" title="More
from guardian.co.uk on Police">police</a> and security
services to extend their monitoring of the public's <a
href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/email"
title="More from guardian.co.uk on Email">email</a> and
social media communications are unnecessary and will
generate huge public resentment.</p>
<p>Davis spoke out after it emerged a new system will allow
security officials to scrutinise who is talking to whom, and
exactly when the conversations are taking place, but not the
content of the message.</p>
<p>The coalition's proposals are likely to be introduced in
the Queen's speech on 9 May and will focus on <a
href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/internet"
title="More from guardian.co.uk on Internet">internet</a>
service providers (<a
href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/isps"
title="More from guardian.co.uk on ISPs">ISPs</a>)
gathering the information and allowing government
intelligence operatives to scrutinise it.</p>
<p>Labour tried to introduce a similar system using a central
database tracking all phone, text, email and internet use
but that was dropped in 2009. It followed concerns raised by
ISPs and mobile phone operators over the project's
feasibility, and anxieties over who would foot the bill.</p>
<p>Civil liberties campaigners have strongly criticised the
revival of the plan because of the risk it could breach the
<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/privacy"
title="More from guardian.co.uk on Privacy">privacy</a> of
law-abiding Britons.</p>
<p>The Conservative MP for Haltemprice and Howden, <a
href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/jun/12/daviddavis.conservatives"
title="">who famously quit his seat to trigger a
byelection over the Labour government's 42-day terror
detention plan in 2008</a>, said legislation was
unnecessary. Current surveillance arrangements under the
Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act and the unwarranted
checks on "who calls who" were already "too loose".</p>
<p>"I'm afraid what this does is makes it 60m times worse,"
Davis told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.</p>
<p>The coalition government had vowed – and <a
href="http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/sites/default/files/resources/coalition_programme_for_government.pdf"
title="">enshrined in the coalition agreement – </a>to
"end the storage of internet and email records without good
reason" in a section on civil liberties that espouses the
way the British state "has become too authoritarian".</p>
<p>Davis said: "What is proposed is completely unfettered
access to every single communication you make. This argument
it doesn't cover content – it doesn't cover content for
telephone calls, but your web address is content. If you
access a [website], that is content.</p>
<p>"I'm afraid it is a very, very big widening of powers,
which I'm afraid will be very much resented by many, many
citizens who do not like the idea."</p>
<p>A similar attempt in Germany two years ago led to 35,000
complaints to the supreme court, which subsequently struck
it down, he said, warning: "I suspect the same thing will
happen here."</p>
<p>He added: "It's going to cause enormous resentment. Already
thousands of people on the web are objecting to it. It was
dropped by the last government … if it was so important,
they should have kept going last time."</p>
<p>Anthony Glees, director of the Centre for Security and
Intelligence Studies at the University of Buckingham,
pointed to the recent killings in Toulouse, France,
supported the measures, saying it needed to be done "because
it can be done".</p>
<p>He told Today the measures were important in the year of
the Olympic Games and the Queen's Diamond jubilee.
Terrorists can be monitored and attacks dealt with, he said,
accusing critics such as Davis of getting a "bit obsessed"
with privacy, which he said "militates in favour of the
people who want to take the liberties of the rest of us".</p>
<p>Davis pointed out that if the legislative plans were going
to be in the Queen's speech next month, they could only be
implemented in late 2013 at the earliest.</p>
<p>The Home Office confirmed over the weekend that the plans
would be brought forward "as soon as parliamentary time
allows".</p>
<p>The Home Office said: "It is vital that police and security
services are able to obtain communications data in certain
circumstances to investigate serious crime and terrorism and
to protect the public.</p>
<p>"We need to take action to maintain the continued
availability of communications data as technology changes.
Communications data includes time, duration and dialling
numbers of a phone call, or an email address. It does not
include the content of any phone call or email and it is not
the intention of government to make changes to the existing
legal basis for the interception of communications."</p>
<p>Lord Carlile, a Lib Dem peer and a former independent
reviewer of terrorism legislation for the government, said
he expected parliament to demand strict safeguards on any
new powers.</p>
<p>"There is nothing new about this," he told Today. "The
previous government intended to take similar steps and they
were heavily criticised by the coalition parties.</p>
<p>"But having come into government, the coalition parties
have realised this kind of material has potential for saving
lives, preventing serious crime and helping people to avoid
becoming victims of serious crime.</p>
<p>"We are talking about the updating of existing practices."</p>
<p>Lord Carlile said he would expect parliament to demand the
setting up of an independent board to monitor activity.</p>
<p>Isabella Sankey, director of policy at Liberty, said:
"Whoever is in government the grand snooping ambitions of
security agencies don't change.</p>
<p>"The coalition agreement explicitly promised to 'end
unnecessary data retention' and restore our civil liberties.
At the very least we need less secret briefing and more
public consultation if this promise is to be abandoned".</p>
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