Lawyers slam Home Office snooping charter

Privacy campaigners are claiming that government proposals to force ISPs to retain internet traffic data are illegal.

Having asked international law firm Covington & Burling to examine the Home Office proposals, the conclusions are damning.

"The data retention regime envisaged by the [European Union] Framework Decision, and now appearing in various forms at the Member State level, is unlawful," said Covington & Burling in a statement.

According to the law firm the indiscriminate collection of traffic breaches the accepted principle that citizens have the right to know under what circumstances the state can conduct surveillance.

It further argues that the Human Rights Act makes a data retention scheme illegal, because it is out of proportion to the threat.

"It clearly exposes the government's intention not only to snoop unnecessarily on innocent people, but to force unwilling companies to be complicit in an unprecedented and disproportionate surveillance regime," said Simon Davis, director of Privacy International.

"The government's plans are illegal. We are calling on all communications providers to support their customers' rights by ignoring the government's proposals."

The Home Office has stated that it wishes to see a voluntary data retention scheme in operation. If industry does not agree to this, it will consider enforcing a scheme.