Database makes suspects of us all, watchdog warns

EVERY Briton could be "a suspect" if ministers persist in extending state surveillance powers, the Government's privacy watchdog warned today.

Information Commissioner Richard Thomas said "creeping surveillance" had gone "too far, too fast" and threatened to undermine the fundamental values of British society.

He added that current government proposals to log everyone's phone, email, text and internet records on a database would be a "step too far".

Mr Thomas also hit out at new data-sharing powers contained in a Coroners and Justice Bill which is before Parliament - saying they should be "narrowed" - and raised further concerns about the scope of the national DNA database, the growing use of CCTV cameras, and the impact of the new ContactPoint database with details of all the nation's children.

Ministers continue to insist that surveillance remains proportionate. But Mr Thomas said: "In the last 10 or 15 years a great deal of surveillance has been extended without sufficient thought to the risks and consequences."

Mr Thomas said he was particulary worried about plans - due to be announced soon - for new powers which will enable the Government to store on a huge new database the computer, phone and other electronic records of all British residents. He suggested this would lead to unacceptable intrusion and added: "We've got to have a much clearer distinction between those who are suspects and everybody else.

"I think we're at risk of making everybody a suspect if we go too far down this road."

Mr Thomas was also critical of the new ContactPoint children's database and said a better option would be to retain only the records of those who were at risk. He expressed similar concerns about the use of CCTV in classrooms by some schools and of the recent Met Police demand that a pub in Islington instal cameras to film all its customers as they entered and left.

In a separate development today, ministers were reported to be trying to find a way round a European court ruling which condemned their keeping the DNA of innocent Britons on the national database.

At the moment, about 800,000 such samples are stored and the Home Office insists that keeping them is an important crime-fighting tool since they have been used to convict those who, when the sample was taken, did not have had a criminal record.

Ministers, who have been told by the European court to make a stronger case, are now understood to be assembling details of these cases to convince judges.

Surveillance society

The National DNA Database

Holds the records of about 4.5 million people, including details of about 800,000 who have never been convicted of a crime, and 1.1 million children.

ID cards

The first cards - for foreign nationals - were issued last year and are due to be rolled out for British citizens under a £4.7 billion scheme over the next few years. It will eventually involve the biometric details of all citizens being kept on a national database.

CCTV

At least 4.2 million cameras are thought to be in use. Common locations include shops, transport networks and streets, but some are also being installed in schools and pubs.

Contact Point

New national children's database has been set up at a cost of £224 million to store the name, address, date of birth and other information of every child in the country.

Communications database Proposals that would enable the retention of the phone, computer and other electronic records of all residents are due to be unveiled shortly in a bid to ensure that police and the security service continue to be able to trace the activities of criminals.

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