The Government is... watching you on Facebook

 

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By Barry Collins

Posted on 25 Mar 2009 at 07:51

The Government has announced plans to monitor people's communications on social-networking sites.

The new proposals will see sites such as Facebook, MySpace and Bebo compelled to retain information about people's contacts and surfing habits.

It's the latest in a set of draconian measures designed to tackle terrorism. The Government has already announced plans to store details of every phone call, email and internet visit made in the UK as part of its intercept modernisation programme.

Government minister Vernon Coaker says the Government needs to widen the net on internet surveillance. "Social networking sites, such as MySpace or Bebo, are not covered by the directive," he said, according to a report in The Independent.

"That is one reason why the Government are looking at what we should do about the intercept modernisation programme because there are certain aspects of communications which are not covered by the directive."

Coaker insists the content of messages sent via social-networks won't be monitored, but sites could be compelled to hold data about every person its users communicate with.

The move has met fierce opposition from the Liberal Democrats. "Plans to monitor our phone and email records threaten to be the most expensive snooper's charter in history," claims home affairs spokesman Tom Brake.

"It is deeply worrying that they now intend to monitor social-networking sites which contain very sensitive data like sexual orientation, religious beliefs and political views.

"Given the Government's disastrous record with large IT projects and data security, it is likely that data will leak out of every memory stick, port and disk drive when they start monitoring Facebook, Bebo and MySpace."

Facebook's chief privacy officer, Chris Kelly, has described the proposals as "overkill" and plans to lobby the Government.