Interception Modernisation Programme
Encyclopedia
The Interception Modernisation Programme (IMP) is a UK government initiative to extend the government's capabilities for intercepting
Lawful interception
Lawful interception is obtaining communications network data pursuant to lawful authority for the purpose of analysis or evidence. Such data generally consist of signalling or network management information or, in fewer instances, the content of the communications...

 and storing communications data
Communications data
Communications data concerns information about communication.Communications data is a part of a message that should be distinguished from the content of the message...

. It has been widely reported that the IMP's eventual goal is to store details of all UK communications data in a central database.

In 2008 plans were being made to collect data on all phone calls
Telephone call
A telephone call is a connection over a telephone network between the calling party and the called party.-Information transmission:A telephone call may carry ordinary voice transmission using a telephone, data transmission when the calling party and called party are using modems, or facsimile...

, email
Email
Electronic mail, commonly known as email or e-mail, is a method of exchanging digital messages from an author to one or more recipients. Modern email operates across the Internet or other computer networks. Some early email systems required that the author and the recipient both be online at the...

s, chatroom discussions
Chat room
The term chat room, or chatroom, is primarily used by mass media to describe any form of synchronous conferencing, occasionally even asynchronous conferencing...

 and web-browsing
World Wide Web
The World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet...

 habits as part of the IMP, thought likely to require the insertion of 'thousands' of black box
Black box
A black box is a device, object, or system whose inner workings are unknown; only the input, transfer, and output are known characteristics.The term black box can also refer to:-In science and technology:*Black box theory, a philosophical theory...

 probes into the country’s computer and telephone networks. The proposals were expected to be included in the Communications Data Bill
Communications Data Bill
The Communications Data Bill includes plans in the United Kingdom to collect data on people's phone, e-mail and web-browsing habits for mass surveillance. The government database would include telephone numbers dialed, the websites visited and addresses to which e-mails are sent but not the text of...

. The "giant database" would include telephone numbers dialed, the websites visited and addresses to which e-mails are sent "but not the content of e-mails or telephone conversations." Chris Huhne
Chris Huhne
Christopher Murray Paul-Huhne, generally known as Chris Huhne is a British politician and cabinet minister, who is the current Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament for the Eastleigh constituency in Hampshire...

, the Liberal Democrat Home affairs spokesman said: "The government's Orwellian
Orwellian
"Orwellian" describes the situation, idea, or societal condition that George Orwell identified as being destructive to the welfare of a free society...

 plans for a vast database of our private communications are deeply worrying."

The Home Office has denied reports that a prototype of the IMP had already been built.

Reports in April 2009 suggest that the government has changed its public stance to one of using legal measures to compel communications providers to store the data themselves, and making it available for government to access, with then Home Secretary
Home Secretary
The Secretary of State for the Home Department, commonly known as the Home Secretary, is the minister in charge of the Home Office of the United Kingdom, and one of the country's four Great Offices of State...

 Jacqui Smith
Jacqui Smith
Jacqueline Jill "Jacqui" Smith is a member of the British Labour Party. She served as the Member of Parliament for Redditch from 1997 until 2010 and was the first ever female Home Secretary, thus making her the third woman to hold one of the Great Offices of State — after Margaret Thatcher and...

 stating that "there are absolutely no plans for a single central store."

The new plans are thought to involve spending £2bn on paying ISPs to install deep packet inspection
Deep packet inspection
Deep Packet Inspection is a form of computer network packet filtering that examines the data part of a packet as it passes an inspection point, searching for protocol non-compliance, viruses, spam, intrusions or predefined criteria to decide if the packet can...

 equipment within their own networks, and obliging them to perform the cross-correlation and profiling of their users' behaviour themselves , in effect achieving the original goals of the IMP by different means.

A detailed analysis was published by the Policy Engagement Network of the London School of Economics on 16 June 2009. The All Party Privacy Group held a hearing on IMP in the House of Commons on 1 July 2009.

The UK's new coalition government has apparently revived the IMP in their recent Strategic Defence and Security Review.

The proposal is similar to the NSA Call Database
NSA call database
The United States' National Security Agency maintains a database containing hundreds of billions of records of telephone calls made by U.S...

 established by GCHQ's American counterpart NSA and the Titan traffic database
Titan traffic database
The Titan traffic database is a database established by the Swedish National Defence Radio Establishment where call detail records of telephony and internet traffic and transaction data concerning international telecommonications are stored...

 established by the Swedish National Defence Radio Establishment
Swedish National Defence Radio Establishment
The National Defence Radio Establishment is a civilian establishment subordinate to the Ministry of Defence. The two main tasks of FRA are signals intelligence and support to government authorities and state owned companies regarding IT security.Interception of signals is done from fixed sites on...

.

See also

  • National Identity Register
  • National DNA Database
    National DNA database
    A national DNA database is a government database of DNA profiles which can be used by law enforcement agencies to identify suspects of crimes....

  • Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000
    Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000
    The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, regulating the powers of public bodies to carry out surveillance and investigation, and covering the interception of communications...

  • Data Retention Directive
    Data Retention Directive
    The Data Retention Directive, more formally "Directive 2006/24/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 March 2006 on the retention of data generated or processed in connection with the provision of publicly available electronic communications services or of public communications...

  • Mastering the Internet
    Mastering the Internet
    "Mastering the Internet" is reportedly a massive UK government mass surveillance project led by the British communications intelligence agency GCHQ, with a budget of over £1 billion...


External links

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