There is some misunderstanding in the papers and blogs today concerning the Intercept Modernisation Programme, RIPA and EU law.
The Mail reports:
An astonishing £380 a minute [£200m/pa] will be spent on surveillance in a massive expansion of the Big Brother state.
The £200million-a-year sum will give officials access to details of every internet click made by every citizen – on top of the email and telephone records already available.
Many ISPs already log this information as part of a ‘voluntary code’ in the Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act (2001). This ‘voluntary’ code requests websites a user visited are logged.
Under EU law (The Data Retention (EC Directive) Regulations (2009)), the Home Secretary, at his discretion, can pay money to these CSPs to reimburse them the cost of retaining this information and, under RIPA, can pay CSPs for disclosing information they retain to relevant authorities such as local councils, the fire service, etc.
In a written answer to Lib Dem MP Willie Rennie, the Home Office reported it expects to pay around £14m each year to CSPs to retain information. It is unclear as to whether this also reimburses CSPs for disclosing information as part of RIPA requests.
Where does this figure of £200 million come from? Although it was only reported today, the figure was revealed on page 27 of the Home Office’s consultation paper on its Intercept Modernisation Programme in April 09 which states:
Initial estimates of the implementation costs of the range of options discussed above are up to £2bn
The figure of £200 is the £2 billion over ten years.
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