Communications Data Bill budget seems ‘wildly optimistic’ iomart suggests, as Theresa May considers asking Parliament to add extremist website to Ofcom’s remit
Home Secretary Theresa May has said the Communications Data Bill is ‘essential’ in the wake of the Woolwich tragedy, but cloud computer company iomart has warned that the £1.8 billion suggested for the project seems ‘wildly optimistic’.
May also suggested that Ofcom’s powers should be extended to include blocking or taking down extremist messages on the internet.
This would be an issue for Parliament to discuss.
An Ofcom spokesperson told The Drum: “Ofcom enforces rules designed to protect audiences from harm from religious extremism broadcast on TV and radio. We have recently taken action against a number of channels for breaking these rules.
“Ofcom’s powers enable us to act only after a programme is broadcast. In following the rules broadcasters must make a careful judgement, balancing freedom of expression with a care for their audiences.”
The Communications Data Bill, which has been nicknamed the ‘Snoopers Bill’, has faced criticism from both Nick Clegg and cyber security experts.
Discussing the bill, and how feasible it would be to make the act work, Bill Strain, chief technology officer for iomart Group plc, said: “In essence the government wants to create a massive database containing every form of communication that we make via our mobile phones, our emails, social media and the websites we visit.
“A set of tools would be created to allow them to interrogate this vast sea of information which would have to be collected by hundreds of different Service Providers across the UK.
“At the moment, like most ISPs, iomart Group only collects the data that it needs to bill and provide technical support for its customers. We own and operate eight data centres across the UK, managing thousands of servers and delivering services to hundreds of thousands of customers. The Communications Data Bill would enforce all ISPs, and anyone providing email services, mobile phone services and internet access to both collect and store all the data generated by customers and users and either provide it to the government or provide the government with access to it. Multiply iomart by the hundreds of other ISPs in the country and you’re talking about a vast project.
“Aside from the political and privacy arguments, the physical delivery of such a project would need a technology platform that could be plugged into every Service Provider’s infrastructure and could then aggregate and analyse the information held. You would then need to tie-back the data from disparate Service Providers to discover where suspects were sending their communications from, what websites they were accessing and who they were sharing it with.
“The government’s estimate that it can be done for £1.8 billion seems wildly optimistic. It is such a phenomenal job that it could cost far more than that. It seems the project will be delivered by the company that’s providing our aircraft carriers - those carriers will probably seem cheap in comparison.”