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May setting out plans to monitor internet use in the UK May setting out plans to monitor internet use in the UK
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Details of internet use in the UK will have to be stored for a year to allow police and intelligence services to access it, under government plans.Details of internet use in the UK will have to be stored for a year to allow police and intelligence services to access it, under government plans.
Records will include people's activity on social network sites, webmail, internet phone calls and online gaming.Records will include people's activity on social network sites, webmail, internet phone calls and online gaming.
Home Secretary Theresa May said the change was needed to keep up with how criminals are using new technology. Home Secretary Theresa May said the change was needed to keep up with how criminals were using new technology.
But senior Tory David Davis called it "incredibly intrusive" and would only "catch the innocent and incompetent". But senior Tory David Davis said it was "incredibly intrusive" and would only "catch the innocent and incompetent".
The government's Communications Bill, to be published in draft form on Thursday, has already sparked controversy and led to tension within the coalition government. The Communications Bill is to be published in draft form on Thursday - but the government faces a battle to get it through Parliament intact, with Lib Dem MPs and Conservatives such as Mr Davis calling for it to be watered down or abandoned altogether.
As part of moves to win over critics it is believed councils will be not be able to get access to the details stored under the new plans. Local authorities are likely to be stripped of their current powers to access phone call data in an effort to win over critics but the proposals have still been branded a "snooper's charter" by civil liberties campaigners.
Rachel Robinson, policy officer for Liberty, said: "It's good that local councils won't be able to watch the entire population but even law enforcement should be targeting suspects - not all citizens.
Ministers say laws on internet surveillance must keep pace with technological developments and enable the police to keep track of web-based communications of terrorist suspects and serious criminals. "Just like the internet, any private home can be a crime scene, but should we install hidden cameras and microphones in every bedroom in the land?"
But critics say it represents an unjustifiable intrusion of state power and will not be effective in bringing potential offenders to justice. 'Stopping terrorists'
As now, police will not be able to monitor the content of phone calls and emails without a warrant from a judge, instead only being able to find out when calls are made, where and by whom. Under current legislation, communications companies must keep phone records and information about messages sent via their own email services for 12 months.
But, for the first time, the laws will cover social media and internet-based telephony.
Firms that provide communications and internet services will be required to store more data about their subscribers than they do at present and retain it for a year - to be paid for by government. The new proposals would require UK communications companies to keep details of a much wider range of data including use of social network sites, webmail, voice calls over the internet, and gaming. Websites visited could be recorded, although pages within sites would not be.
The BBC's home affairs correspondent Danny Shaw said ministers argue that technological advances mean that a quarter of the records needed by the police are not available and that safeguards against misuse will be strengthened. Mrs May told BBC Breakfast: "It's not about the content, it's not about reading people's emails or listening to their telephone calls.
But the government faces a battle to get the proposals through Parliament intact with Lib Dem MPs and some Conservatives calling for the plans to be either watered down or abandoned altogether. "This is purely about the who, when and where made these communications and it's about ensuring we catch criminals and stop terrorists."
The police and security services are concerned that criminals and terrorists are increasingly evading detection by using social media and online gaming sites to communicate with each other.
Officers would still need to obtain a warrant to gain access to the data.
But the government would be able to request any service provider to keep data about internet usage, although initially it will involve about a dozen firms including BT, Virgin and Sky.
'Total war'
The previous government was forced to abandon plans to store every citizen's internet data on a single, giant database following protests - and Mrs May says she has no plan to resurrect this idea.
The proposals will be subject to scrutiny by a joint parliamentary committee before the legislative process begins in earnest.The proposals will be subject to scrutiny by a joint parliamentary committee before the legislative process begins in earnest.
Mrs May is expected to say: "Communications data is vital for the police in their fight against crime, including serious offences such as child abuse, drug dealing and terrorism. Metropolitan Police commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe, writing in the Times, said having greater powers to access data was essential in waging a "total war on crime" - and he warned that police risked losing the fight against crime unless MPs passed a law enabling them to collect more communications data.
"These measures are necessary to protect the public and investigate crime - and that is the only reason for which they should be used." He wrote: "Put simply, the police need access to this information to keep up with the criminals who bring so much harm to victims and our society."
The home secretary is expected to confirm that public bodies will have to apply for the new powers at a later date while councils will be stripped of their current powers to access information on phone calls. Tory backbencher David Davis, a former shadow home secretary who fought a by-election in the last Parliament on the issue of civil liberties, described the proposals as "incredibly intrusive".
"I think it is right that we look again and ask whether local authorities really need access to communications data." He said the ban on local authority officials accessing data was "important but minor".
'Not credible' He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "If they really want to do things like this - and we all accept they use data to catch criminals - get a warrant. Get a judge to sign a warrant, not the guy at the next desk, not somebody else in the same organisation.
Assistant Chief Constable Gary Beautridge, head of data communications at the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo), said the current lack of access to details of internet communications was hampering investigations. "The only people who will avoid this are the actual criminals, because there are ways around this - you use an internet cafe, you hack into somebody's wi-fi, you use what's called proxy servers, and they are just the easy ways."
"There is a growing gap in our ability to maintain current capability," he said. "The increase in web-based forms of communication is growing at an exponential rate."
But Nick Pickles, director of the civil liberties campaign group Big Brother Watch, said further complicating existing laws would reduce accountability and increase risks of abuse.
"To rush out an announcement about local councils is neither a serious review nor a credible effort to protect civil liberties," he said.
"It is a desperate attempt to buy off critics that says a great deal about how little support the Home Office believes there is for this policy."