Expanded surveillance powers

Britain's interior ministry announced on Sunday that it would propose new legislation empowering one of its intelligence agencies to monitor all phone calls, texts, emails and online activities in the country to prevent criminal activity and terrorist attacks.

The proposed legislation calls for Internet companies to install hardware that would allow the Government Communication Headquarters (GCHQ), Britain's electronic "listening agency," to monitor "on demand" every text message and email sent, websites accessed and phone calls made "in real time," the Sunday Times newspaper reported.

The legislation would not allow the agency to access the content of private communications without a warrant, but would allow it to trace who an individual or group was in contact with, how frequently they communicated, and for how long.

The Home Office, or interior ministry, said ministers were preparing to legislate "as soon as parliamentary time allows."

"It is vital that police and security services are able to obtain communications data in certain circumstances to investigate serious crime and terrorism and to protect the public," a Home Office spokesman said.

"We need to take action to maintain the continued availability of communications data as technology changes," the spokesman added.

'Drastic step'

British rights groups criticized the legislation as a major erosion of civil liberties.

Nick Pickles, director of the Big Brother Watch campaign group, called the plans an "unprecedented step that will see Britain adopt the same kind of surveillance seen in China and Iran."

Shami Chakrabarti, director of the civil liberties group Liberty, denounced the move as a "pretty drastic step in a democracy."

Members of the governing Conservative Party also attacked the legislation as an invasion of privacy and infringement of personal rights.

"What the government hasn't explained is precisely why they intend to eavesdrop on all of us without even going to a judge for a warrant, which is what always used to happen," Member of Parliament David Davis told BBC news.

"It is an unnecessary extension of the ability of the state to snoop on ordinary people," he said.

slk/pfd (AFP, Reuters)