Government to track all emails

10 months ago 12th Jan 13:10

Every email in Britain is to be tracked by the Government in a bid to target crime and terrorist activity.

The new scheme by the Home Office means that Internet Service Providers such as BT and Vodafone are required to monitor the times and frequencies of every email sent or received in Britain for a year.

The directive will reportedly cost the British government between £25 million and £70 million in payment to Internet Service Providers, and will begin on 15 March this year.

The incentive has raised ethical questions of privacy and basic human rights under the infringement of civil liberties, as outlined in Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

The Home Office is progressing towards the monitoring of actual content which is a concern for our fundamental right to privacy”Technology expert, Martin Warner

The actual content of emails will not be monitored, but the police and councils will be able to access details regarding frequency of emails and the times they were sent if required.

There are concerns that this move is a step towards the Government’s Interception Modernisation Programme, which threatens to monitor not only emails, but text messages, phone calls and website visitations in an effort to combat crime and terrorism.

Technology expert Martin Warner said: “Not many people would argue that greater monitoring of the Internet is a bad thing. The Home Office however, is progressing towards the monitoring of actual content which is a concern for our fundamental right to privacy”.