The government has announced the Communications Data Bill, which should be available here soon. The bill replaces Chapter I, Part II of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000, which deals with access to communications data by law enforcement. Of particular note:
1.) The Secretary of State may require communications providers to collect data, rather than simply retain data generated in the course of business — it goes further that the data retention rules;
2.) In addition to retaining data, the bill purports to permit the Secretary of State to order communications providers to "generate" data — a particularly scary proposition, since it potentially means an order to change a business model or service structure, to gather more data;
3.) It provides for a filtering mechanism, whereby communications data from multiple providers will be shared with a central body (my money is on Detica), before extracts are passed to the requesting agency. Notionally, this is to protect privacy, but the rules-based filtering tool may cause concerns from a evidential point of view, and requires greater training of law enforcement officers. (Of course, if used as an investigative, rather than evidential, tool, that issue falls away somewhat.)
The bill removes access to data from local councils, which, frankly, should never have had access in the first place.
Are there prescribed circumstances under which the Secretary of State can request the generation of data for particular individuals? Are there specific provisions limiting the use data retained by service providers? What are the implications with regard to the right of privacy?
ReplyDeleteAre there prescribed circumstances under which the Secretary of State can request the generation of data for particular individuals?
ReplyDeleteNo — see ss 1-2 of the bill, which is available here.
Are there specific provisions limiting the use data retained by service providers?
No, but the standard data protection and ePrivacy regimes apply.
What are the implications with regard to the right of privacy?
That's the discussion I was hoping to get in these comments :) What do you think?
I'll try to comment in more detail next week. One statistic which stood out for me from the Bill's supporting documents was to the effect that 90% of serious criminal investigations made use of communications data. I can quite believe and accept that. What I have never been able to find are any statistics as to how much useful use has been made of data retained under data retention legislation in advance of there being any cause for suspicion.
ReplyDeleteMy concern is that masses of data are being retained about all of us in the absence of any hard evidence that it helps law enforcement. There may be statistics proving this, in which event I would moderate my views but I do have a real concern that we are losing too much privacy for no good purpose.
Ian