Email Law “Attack on Civil Liberties”
It seems that the government’s plans to keep details of our emails on file is under attack:
Upcoming rules that force internet companies to hold details of every e-mail sent in Britain are a waste of money and an attack on privacy, according to a prominent security expert.
From March, all internet service providers (ISPs) will have to keep data about e-mails sent and received in the UK for a year. The content of individual e-mails will not be kept by the authorities, but the timing and number of each communication will be stored.
Naturally, I am opposed to this on civil liberties grounds, but I also wonder just what benefit they think they will derive from it. Without the content of the correspondence, it is pretty much useless – and that is before we consider the signal to noise ratio.
Take my correspondence as an example. I have three separate accounts. One is my main account through which I send and receive most of my communication. It is a POP3 server located in the USA and is not linked to my ISP (which, incidentally, is not UK based). The second is provided by my main client and is a web based system located on their server. The third is a throw-away account that I will use and abuse for a while and then junk when the SPAM gets too high. None of these three accounts is directly linked to my ISP and two of them are web based. That said, I can’t tell what the ISP can determine and what it cannot. They may be able to pick up what I download to my email client.
I communicate with a range of people on a range of matters. Some for work, some purely for social and some for purchases. Very little SPAM gets through my filters, but, yes, some of it is SPAM. So, knowing that I sent or received an email from someone tells anyone snooping pretty much nothing without the content.
The Home Office said the data would be useful for combating crime.
Well, they would, wouldn’t they? That they have no idea how is beside the point. They are looking for the proverbial needle in a haystack and their solution is to buy in some more hay.
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