Government outlines data retention plans

The government has scaled down its plans for collecting internet and email data and trimmed the number of agencies to be allowed access.

The Home Office has launched a consultation paper setting out what information communication service providers are required to hold to aid law enforcement, and for how long.

Under the government proposals, mobile operators and internet service providers (ISPs) will be required to store information on users for up to 12 months.

Details of who sent and received emails will need to be kept for six months.

Original government proposals published last year were scrapped following criticism that they were too far-reaching.

A separate consultation will decide the number of government agencies allowed access to traffic data.

Previously the government wanted to give access to more than 100 authorities and agencies, but that figure is likely to drop to five.

"It is a question of getting the balance right between [police] powers and our cherished privacy," said Home Office minister Bob Ainsworth.

Interest groups have until 3 June 2003 to respond to the proposals.

If industry cannot agree on a voluntary code, the government has the power to introduce a mandatory scheme.

Ainsworth conceded that getting agreement would be difficult, as some would insist on a compulsory code before complying.

But the process is a "sham", said Ian Brown, director of privacy campaign group the Foundation for Information Policy Research.

The Home Office is "merely going through the motions so that they can come back with a compulsory scheme," he added.

New media forum the All Party Internet Group called for the government to introduce a 'preservation' scheme, whereby only targeted users' information would be stored, instead of a blanket scheme.

But this was rejected by the Home Office because the preservation option could not "aid in the investigation of a person not currently suspected" of terrorist activity.