All telecoms companies will have to store customer internet and phone data by law.

The UK Government is continuing with its proposals to capture all public internet and phone data despite widespread concerns over Britain’s growing surveillance society.

The Office for Security and Counter Terrorism (Home Office) has now released the responses to its three-month consultation launched in April this year – Protecting the Public in a Changing Communications Environment – which examined the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA).

It states that every telecommunications company and internet service provider will be required by law to keep a record of every customer’s personal communications, showing who they are contacting, when, where and which websites they are visiting.

Records of every single click will be logged and accessed by 653 public bodies – including police, local councils, the Financial Services Authority (FSA), the Ambulance Service, fire authorities and prison governors.

Out of 222 respondents to the consultation, over 40% (90) did not address the questions asked but objected generally to the paper, almost invariably on the grounds of opposition in principle to any sort of surveillance.

Of those whose responses were considered, exactly half said that the proposed safeguards for the information to be stored were not adequate. Only 29% supported the Government’s approach, whereas 38% were against it.

Permission to access this confidential information will not come from a judge or magistrate as many expected, but simply from a senior police officer or the equivalent of a deputy head of department at a local authority.

According to The Telegraph newspaper, ministers had originally wanted to store the information on a massive Government-run database, but chose not to because of privacy concerns.

However, the fact that private firms will store the data still does not appear to allay privacy fears. Currently, call and email data is often held on an adhoc basis by companies, usually for business purposes.

The new rules – known as the Intercept Modernisation Programme – will not only force communication companies to keep their records for longer, but to expand the type of data they keep to include details of every website their customers visit – effectively registering every click online.

While public authorities will not be able to view the contents of these emails or phone calls – they will be able to see the internet addresses, dates, times and users of telephone numbers and texts.

The firms involved in keeping the data, such as Orange, BT and Vodafone, will be reimbursed at a cost to the taxpayer of £2 billion over 10 years.

For more information on RIPA, click here.