A proposed British database intended to store details of every phone call, e-mail and Web site visit made in the U.K. could be managed by a private sector contractor under government plans, the Guardian newspaper reported Wednesday.
Such outsourcing would be accompanied by tougher legal safeguards to guarantee against leaks and accidental data losses, the newspaper said, citing a consultation paper.
However, involving the private sector in handling such sensitive data is bound to generate more trouble for the plan, particularly given a series of high-profile losses of computers, disks and hard drives storing such material in recent years. The steady stream of data blunders has kept the spotlight on the way the government handles — or mishandles — its citizens’ information.
Britain’s Home Office will consult the public and communications industry on the proposals starting next month, but declined to say on Wednesday whether an option for a private company to manage the database will be included in documents circulated for discussion.
The government previously dropped plans to include the proposal in the annual legislative program announced earlier this month, saying more debate was necessary.
Civil liberties groups have expressed concern about the database, which would create an unprecedented store of information on each individual’s private communications in hopes of tracking the movements of criminals or terrorists.
Ken Macdonald, who stepped down as Britain’s director of public prosecutions in October, said the plans to create a database are the stuff of a “paranoid fantasy.”
“No other country is considering such a drastic step,” Macdonald was quoted by the Guardian as saying.
Such a database would provide “a complete readout of every citizen’s life in the most intimate and demeaning detail.”
“The notion of total security is a paranoid fantasy which would destroy everything that makes living worthwhile,” he was quoted as saying. “We must avoid surrendering our freedom.”
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