In an age where privacy is becoming increasingly hard to come by, the British government is further hastening its demise for citizens in the UK. According to The Telegraph, all internet service providers and telecommunication companies will be legally required to store records of all personal communications for one year.

Moreover, that data will be made available to a wide range of 653 public bodies including police, fire and ambulance services, the Financial Services Authority, prison governors and local councils. Obtaining access to the data won’t even require the permission of a judge; authorization from a senior police official or equivalent department head at a local authority will suffice.

The original plan, named rather ominously the “Intercept Modernisation Programme,” was to create a single government in-house database to compile and store all the data, but widespread opposition and privacy concerns held officials back from that brink. Nevertheless the new legislation, slated to come before Parliament after the next general election, will dramatically increase the amount and types of personal communications data that can be relatively easily obtained. And of course, UK taxpayers will be footing the bill for all that storage, to the tune of £2 billion over the next 10 years.

All of this is, of course, under the guise of fighting terrorism. Shadow home secretary Chris Grayling indicated one of the many problems with the sweeping legislation is the potential for “mission creep,” in which new powers introduced ostensibly for one purpose “end up being used for completely different purposes. We have to stop that from happening.”

What do you think about the new UK law? How much access is too much? Let us know in the comments.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, Nikada

Tags: COMMUNICATIONS, isps, law, legislation, privacy, uk

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BIG BROTHER: UK to Mandate Personal Data Storage