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SNOOPERS
Government agencies will be able to access e-mail and
phone data, under measures unveiled by ministers. Local
councils will be among the bodies able to use
surveillance to investigate crimes, protect national
security and protect public safety. They will be able to
use the powers to collect taxes. Initial plans to revise
legislation were dubbed the "snooper's charter"
when announced by home secretary David Blunkett in 2002.
In a separate development phone companies and internet
service providers will be told by the government to keep
records of phone calls and internet visits for a year.
The civil rights campaigners Liberty have denounced the
latest plans which give agencies such as fire
authorities, jobcentres, the Postal Services Commission,
the Gaming Board and the Charity Commission the power to
use surveillance to investigate crime. Liberty director
Shami Chakrabati said, "This underlines the
uncomfortable fact that the British public are the most
spied upon people in the Western world. The government
has failed to learn from its mistakes. After the original
"snoopers' charter" was published last year,
the government was forced to retreat after enormous
public outcry. We hope the same happens again".
When the home secretary announced plans to revise
existing legislation last year to expand the list of
organisations allowed access to phone and internet
records concern was raised by Liberty about privacy being
eroded. Under the revised legislation, fire authorities
and ambulance services will be given automatic access to
phone and internet data along with six other state
agencies. They will be able to access subscribers' names
and addresses and details of telephone calls and e-mails
made and received. They can also get hold of mobile phone
operators' data that pinpoints a user's location within a
few hundred yards.
The other organisations with automatic access to this
information are the UK Atomic Energy Constabulary, the
Scottish Drugs Enforcement Agency, the Maritime and
Coastguard Agency, Financial Services Authority, Office
of the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland and the
Radiocommunications Agency. The spokesman said the latest
announcement was about providing a "statutory
framework" and "imposing further
restrictions" on the use of existing powers.
"The new measures set out restrictions on the data
organisations can get, states that only senior people
will be allowed access and specifies the reason for
collating this data - the prevention and detection of
crime," he said.
The content of conversations or e-mails will still be
subject to a warrant. These powers were previously the
domain of only the police, MI5, MI6, government listening
post GCHQ, Customs and Excise and the Inland Revenue. A
total of 500 other bodies, including councils, have more
limited access to personal information under the
Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) passed two
years ago. Home Office minister Caroline Flint said,
"These proposals are about vital investigatory tools
being used now to prevent and detect crime and, in some
cases, save lives." Only designated senior officials
will be able to order investigations.
There will be regular checks by the Interception of
Communications Commissioner, Sir Swinton Thomas, to
ensure powers are not being abused, said the Home Office.
Agencies will be given training on the law and how to
maximise privacy, it continued. The minister said,
"We need to ensure that we strike the right balance
between the privacy of the citizen and the need to
investigate crime and protect the public. I believe that
the new order achieves that balance."
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