UK gets anal: data retention act
[link|http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/32832.html|UK.gov to impose data retention dragnet on ISPs]
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nBy John Leyden, Posted: 15/09/2003 at 15:29 GMT
\r\n\r\nThe [British] Government is to impose a controversial Net surveillance regime on service providers, despite widespread industry criticism that its dragnet data retention approach is costly and unworkable.
\r\n\r\nOn Friday (Sept. 12) the Home Office announced the results of a consultation on a code of practice for the voluntary retention of communications data that reveal the Government remains unmoved by the arguments of the ISP community, civil liberty activists or many backbench MPs.
\r\n\r\nCurrently, ISPs retain data for billing purposes only. But soon they will have to retain communications data for at least a year, under provisions in last year's Anti-Terrorism Crime & Security Act (ATCS).
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\r\n\r\nPhil Zimmermann, of PGP fame, described data retention as a threat to civil liberties. He fears that data retention measures might be imposed in US service providers, in parallel with those being contemplated in the UK, via "Patriot Act II", the Bush Administration's next version of anti-terrorism legislation.
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In mitigation, the one thing I've found in my work as a data analyst in various fields is that data not directly related to billing or other revenue-generating activities is very rarely reliable to any approximation.