'Today' considers data retention and IMP

[Roland Perry]

In article
<2298D4476FA2F44591690E423F07C37B25955561D2@EA-EXMSG-C333.europe.corp.mic
rosoft.com>, Caspar Bowden <casparb@microsoft.com> writes
>> Ten years ago, anyone who suggested the government would soon be doing
>> this kind of stuff would be called a "conspiracy theorist".
>
>...that jogged a memory ;-)
>
>http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4029468,00.html
>Thursday June 15, 2000
>
>...Conspiracy theorists must not be allowed to get away with the
>ridiculous notion that law enforcement would or even could monitor all
>emails.

To put that a little more into context, the previous sentence is:

        "A warrant, signed by the home secretary, will be needed to
        monitor emails in the same way one is needed now to monitor
        communications."

>The intelligence agencies have neither the inclination nor the
>resources, nor the legal ability to monitor the massive amounts of
>electronic communications that flow through the UK every day. It does
>not happen with letters or telephones and it will not with emails...
>John Abbott
>Director general, National Criminal Intelligence Service

So this is another instance of the danger of conflating traffic data
collection with interception.

ps I'd be a bit more concerned about the second letter where Charles
Clarke says:

        "You ask if we pledge to make the UK the best environment for
        e-commerce - we have, and this bill will ensure UK cyberspace is
        also the safest."

I see too little evidence that RIPA is being used today to defend the
public against data theft, scams and fraud perpetrated on the Internet.

It's a reminder that RIPA wasn't introduced to combat terrorism (which
only became the hot topic a year later) but to create better oversight
of activities that were happening already.
-- 
Roland Perry