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The Home Office is considering plans to force such sites to hold data about their users' movements to thwart criminals who use them to communicate.The information would then be stored on a central database as part of the government's proposed Intercept Modernisation Programme.The proposal follows plans to retain information about all telephone calls, emails, and internet visits made by everyone in Britain through a multi-billion pound system.A European Union statutory order, called the Data Retention Directive, already proposes that internet service providers in member states store communications and traffic data for one year.However, Vernon Coaker, Minister of State for policing, crime and security, has told MPs that it does not go far enough.Mr Coaker told a Commons Committee: "Social-networking sites, such as MySpace or Bebo, are not covered by the directive."That is one reason why the government are looking at what we should do about the Intercept Modernisation Programme (IMP), because there are certain aspects of communications which are not covered by the directive."The news has outraged civil liberties groups who claim that the plans would excessively pry into the lives of law abiding citizens.Around 25 million people in Britain-almost half the population-are thought to use social networking sites, with Facebook boasting 17 million British users.Bebo, which is aimed predominantly at teenagers and young adults, is estimated to have a following of around 10 million Britons.The disclosure of the plans was made during exchanges between Mr Coaker and Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Tom Brake.Mr Coaker acknowledged the controversy surrounding the proposed database but confirmed that the plans "may include requiring the retention of data on Facebook, Bebo, MySpace, and all other similar sites".He added: "I accept this is an extremely difficult area. The interface between retaining data, private security and all such issues of privacy is extremely important."It is absolutely right to point out the difficulty of ensuring we maintain a capability and a capacity to deal with crime and issues of national security and where that butts up against issues of privacy."Isabella Sankey, policy director of the civil rights pressure group Liberty, said: "Even before you throw Facebook and other social networking sites into the mix, the proposed telecommunications databas is a terrifying prospect."It would allow the government to record every email, text message and phone call and would turn millions of innocent Britons into permanent suspects." The Home Office has defended the proposals, stressing that the government was not seeking the power to examine the content of messages sent via the sites.A spokesman said: "The Government has no interest in the content of people's social network sites and this is not going to be part of our forthcoming consultation."We have been clear that communications revolution has been rapid in this country and the way in which we collect communications data needs to change so that law enforcement agencies can maintain their ability to tackle terrorism and gather evidence."To ensure that we keep up with technological advances we intend to consult widely on proposals shortly. We have been very clear that there are no plans for a database containing the content of emails, texts, conversations or social networking sites."The IMP is a multi-billion pound project, which aims to build new databases capable of storing vast amounts of computer data as part of the fight against terrorism.By Murray Wardrop
As in the days of Noah...
