Home Office pledges data storage reforms

In its business plan 2011-15 , the department says as part of its plans to "protect people's freedoms and civil liberties" it will publish the proposals before the end of the year. However, the proposals appear to contradict the coalition government's plans to resurrect Labour's interception modernisation programme (IMP). In October the coalition government revealed its intentions to bring back the £2bn project, which would allow the police and security services greater abilities to access the internet usage of everyone in Britain. In its strategic defence and security review, the government said that the programme was necessary to keep up with changing technology and to protect the public. Although it is still unclear whether the project will keep the IMP tag, the aims will stay the same. This includes internet service providers (ISPs) holding information on all of their customers' internet activities for a year, including email, messaging and social networking traffic, which would be made available to authorities and intelligence agents following a valid application. The Labour government dropped a bill to set up the scheme last November after internet service providers and mobile phone companies expressed concerns about the strain of storing such a high volume of data, costs and privacy safeguards.