Snooping Bill goals slammed by EC powers

The UK government's attempt to push through the Regulation of Investigatory Powers (RIP) Bill today met with opposition from European politicians who claim many of its aims are already covered by existing laws.

Tim Fenoulhet, director general of the Information Society policy planning unit at the European Commission, told silicon.com: "The whole issue of trying to identify players on the internet and different operators is very difficult in the electronic environment.

Fenoulhet said the proposed legislation covers a number of issues, including data protection, which is already covered by existing directives that set out conditions under which operators can use and exploit personal data.

He added: "But there's also the issue of the ecommerce directive and the extent to which operators can monitor data and activities of law enforcement."

He warned that governments need to be careful when reviewing separate policies for monitoring the internet, and said: "The government has to strike a difficult balance to ensure it is possible to catch those carrying out cyber-crime against protecting data and the vulnerable."

Graham Vickery, director at the science, technology and industry unit at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), agreed.

He said: "Guidelines on information security already exist and while they need to be reviewed from time to time, on the whole we recommend broad global initiatives. If a company decides to introduce their own guidelines then that's up to them but they must be quite clear, and within the global boundaries, as to what constitutes intrusion."