The Communications Data Bill was intended to create powers to collect data concerning people's phone, e-mail and web-browsing habits for mass surveillance in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. The

government database A government database collects information for various reasons, including climate monitoring, securities law compliance, geological surveys, patent applications and grants, surveillance, national security, border control, law enforcement, public ...

would have included telephone numbers dialed, the websites visited and addresses to which e-mails are sent but not the text of e-mails or recorded telephone conversations. Since October 2007 telecommunication companies have been required to keep records of phone calls and text messages for twelve months. The bill would have extended the coverage to Internet website visited, email messages, and

VOIP Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), also called IP telephony, is a method and group of technologies for the delivery of voice communications and multimedia sessions over Internet Protocol (IP) networks, such as the Internet. The terms Interne ...

data.

Chris Huhne Christopher Murray Paul-Huhne (born 2 July 1954), known as Chris Huhne, is a British energy and climate change consultant and former journalist and politician who was the Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament for Eastleigh from 2005 to 2013 a ...

, Liberal Democrat Home affairs spokesman said at the time: "The government's

Orwellian "Orwellian" is an adjective describing a situation, idea, or societal condition that George Orwell identified as being destructive to the welfare of a free and open society. It denotes an attitude and a brutal policy of draconian control by pr ...

plans for a vast database of our private communications are deeply worrying." The plans were not completed during the Labour administration, but intentions to gain access to more communications data lived on under the coalition elected in 2010 as the

Communications Capabilities Development Programme The Communications Capabilities Development Programme (CCDP) is a UK government initiative to extend the government's capabilities for lawful interception and storage of communications data. It would involve the logging of every telephone call, em ...

run by the Home Office's

Office for Security and Counter-Terrorism Homeland Security Group is an executive directorate of the UK government Home Office, created in 2007, responsible for leading the work on counter-terrorism in the UK, working closely with the police and security services. The office reports to ...

. In 2012, a new

Draft Communications Data Bill The Draft Communications Data Bill (nicknamed the Snoopers' Charter or Snooper's Charter) was draft legislation proposed by then Home Secretary Theresa May in the United Kingdom which would require Internet service providers and mobile phone com ...

was published.

References

* {{cite document, title=Draft Communications Data Bill, url=http://researchbriefings.parliament.uk/ResearchBriefing/Summary/SN04884, publisher=House of Commons Library, access-date=16 July 2016, date=6 January 2009, last1=Danby, first1=Grahame Surveillance Government databases in the United Kingdom Law enforcement techniques Counterterrorism in the United Kingdom Mass surveillance National security policies Proposed laws of the United Kingdom Surveillance databases 2008 in British law Home Office (United Kingdom) GCHQ

See also

References