Officials working on Britain's controversial HS2 high-speed rail project intended to gather highly-personal data on the private lives of "complainants, correspondents, litigants, claimants, and enquirers," as well as many others, it has emerged.

A privacy notice published on the UK government's main website revealed the plan but it has since been deleted, with the page now returning a "404" error message.

According to a cached version of the document (PDF), the range of personal data HS2 was planning to process was wide. It included "family, lifestyle, and social circumstances"; racial or ethnic origin; political opinions; physical or mental health conditions; and "sexual life" including sexual orientation. One of the "core purposes" of gathering this information, it reads, was "making Britain proud of HS2 by being proud of what HS2 does for Britain."

Ars sought comment about the plan from High Speed Two Limited (HS2). It said:

We have withdrawn the privacy notice with immediate effect. It does not reflect how we handle information. We will carry out an audit on data to ensure that we do not hold anything inappropriate. At no point has HS2 Ltd used any information held for financial gain, and nor do we intend to. We only share information with suppliers that require it to carry out work on our behalf, and do so in line with the Data Protection Act.

The privacy notice stated that the sensitive information would be collected "primarily from individuals directly where voluntarily provided to us, but HS2 may also collect personal data, where lawful to do so, from (and combine it with information from) online sources and/or other third parties." These include: government departments, the police, intelligence services, healthcare organisations, utilities companies, the courts, security companies, relatives, employers, and social media.

According to the document: "HS2 keeps personal data as long as is necessary for the particular purpose or purposes for which it is held." HS2 said that it "may disclose personal data to a variety of recipients in any part of the world." It further noted in the deleted text: "Some of the bodies or individuals to which we may disclose personal data are situated outside of the European Union—some of which do not have laws that protect data protection rights as extensively as in the United Kingdom."

"This is just another example of government bodies assuming access to personal data is theirs for the taking and that people should willingly hand over data without a care," Big Brother Watch chief Renate Samson told the Daily Express.

Thanks to the recently-passed Snoopers' Charter, which will be formally known as the Investigatory Powers Act, the ability of government bodies to access personal data concerning Internet use just became much easier.

Under the new legislation, police can authorise fellow officers to search Internet Connection Records. And it's not just cops who get to mark their own homework: dozens of government organisations and departments will do the same, too.