Government wants ISPs to log web usage

Proposed law would force companies to track customers' internet use

Phone and internet companies could soon be forced to keep logs of internet usage and make these available to the police if so requested.

The changes to the Communications Data Bill were announced by prime minister Gordon Brown earlier this month. The proposals would implement the remainder of the European Union's Data Retention Directive.

In October 2007 the Government enacted the first part of the regulations, which require telecommunications companies to keep records of phone calls to and from landlines and mobile telephones.

Now this requirement has been extended to records of customers' internet usage, email usage and internet telephony calls.

According to the Home Office, access to this information is needed because monitoring communications plays a key role in counter-terrorism investigations, the prevention and detection of crime and protecting the public.

Gareth Niblett, head of information security for internet service provider Kingston Communications, said consumers should not be concerned about privacy issues.

“We will be required to keep records of when people log on and off, who they email and when for six months.

"Web browsing records will be kept but only for four days and the content isn’t monitored. We also keep much of this information, legitimately for billing purposes anyway,” he told Computeractive.

If authorities such as law enforcement agencies wanted to gain access to such data they would have to apply for a court-ordered warrant to view it.

Despite this, there is disquiet among privacy experts who say the Government is being cagey about the full implications and possible future uses of this data.

The Home Office would not release details of the Bill and how it would work. It has a deadline of 15 March 2009 to be put into law.