British government: ISPs must intercept communications

The British government wants internet providers to intercept all internet traffic and filter certain data from it. That data, such as information about sent emails, must be stored. Encrypted data must be decrypted.

It was already known that the British government wants a far-reaching retention obligation, but as it turns out, this goes even further than expected. It was already known that British providers must keep track of which websites are visited by customers, but not only that: they have to intercept all internet traffic from customers. That would be necessary for police investigation.

This has to be done in so-called ‘black boxes’ that have been approved by the government, writes Channel 4. In doing so, certain information must be stored, such as the headers of e-mails that are sent with online services. In practice, for example, providers have to intercept Gmail messages, filter out the header information, and then store it. Information sent securely must be decrypted. Message content does not need to be saved.

UK ISPs are skeptical; not because of privacy concerns, but because of practical concerns. Intercepting all internet traffic would make internet connections much slower. The legislation has not yet been adopted and has yet to be discussed by Parliament.

In addition to the ISPs, providers of, among other things, online games, online telephone services and social networking sites must also maintain information about communication between users. It is unknown whether the ISPs also have to intercept that information, because that would be done twice.