Clegg wants to reduce amount of retention of digital communications

Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister, has signalled a further change in direction concerning the way the new Government interacts with its citizens. He wants to reduce the amount of digital data held on behalf of the Government by telecoms and Internet service provider companies. They already keep data recording who telephoned or emailed whom, when and for how long (but not the content of the communications themselves) for a year. The previous Government wanted to extend that to other Internet records such as social networking messages.

This announcement comes on the back of other moves to increase civil liberties. The new Government has already said it would scrap the ID scheme and the associated National Identity Register, water down the national DNA database, regulate CCTV more, preserve jury trials and open up freedom of information laws.

‘This Government will end the culture of spying on its citizens,’ said Clegg. ‘It is outrageous that decent, law-abiding people are regularly treated as if they have something to hide. It has to stop.’ No more detail of the plans have been given at the moment, but the Home Office said that the Government would review arrangements for retaining communications data to ensure records are not stored without good cause.