

The *Times *in London is reporting this week on a proposal for a massive government database in the UK that would hold "details of every phone call, e-mail and time spent on the internet by the public" for a year.

Britain's Home Office has already discussed its wish for such a database with telecoms and ISPs and aims to get the requirement in a data communications bill. The companies are already required to keep records of phone calls and text messages for 12 months but the proposal would extend the requirement to internet, e-mail and VoIP records and place the records in government hands, rather than being maintained by the companies.

As expected, not everyone is pleased by the prospect. David Davis, Conservative member of Parliament, said, “Given [ministers’] appalling record at maintaining the integrity of databases holding people’s sensitive data, this could well be more of a threat to our security, than a support.”

(Hat tip: Infosec News)

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