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7/7/2012 11:39:40 AM

CCDP wasn’t an April Fools’ joke; it’s very real and it effectively allows the government to see who everyone talks to online.

Recently, stories about the sinister but innocuously titled Communications Capabilities Development Programme (CCDP) have emerged in the form of leaks and partial confirmations to Sunday newspapers. The second story, printed in The Sunday Times on April Fools’ Day, had many people asking if this supposed plan was a joke. The CCDP, it was claimed, is a plan to collect as much data as possible about who you talk to online, and when. Could such an outrageous story really be true?

Description: CCDP

CCDP

Within a day, minister Theresa May was wheeled out, justifying the idea by reminding people that ‘traffic data’ had in the past been used to investigate terrorists and paedophiles going free … Data like this has already helped lock away murderer Ian Huntley. It helped catch the gangland thugs who gunned down Rhys Jones.’

She also reminded people that the new plans wouldn’t involve storing actual messages you send, just who you communicate with (traffic data). By the time you read this, we may have firmer ideas about what the CCDP really means, so please accept my apologies in advance for any errors: Internet policy can be implemented quickly and dangerously.

CCDP has its roots in a Labour idea from 2009, called the Interception Modernisation Plan (IMP). This included a plan to store all your traffic data in a giant national database, although that part was quickly dropped.

Description: CCDP has its roots in a Labour idea from 2009, called the Interception Modernisation Plan (IMP).

CCDP has its roots in a Labour idea from 2009, called the Interception Modernisation Plan (IMP).

However, the worry remains that the Home Office wants access to stored data in order to ‘fish’ for suspects, by scanning through data it can access easily to their logs. These include email send and receive details, account IP addresses and some data about web visits. ISPs are also required to keep these details for up to 18 months.

ISP aren’t keeping all the relevant information any more. In fact, Skype, Gmail and Facebook are much more likely to have details about who you talk to than BT or TalkTalk, so the Home Office wants to target these ‘third-party applications’ and collect information from them.

When the coalition was formed in May 2010, many people expected the approach to change. After all, we had a new government whose parties had opposed IMP. The coalition, in fact, said in its agreement that we will end the storage of Internet and email records without good reason.

However, by October, the Home Office’s new strategy documents told us the opposite.

We will introduce a programme to preserve the ability of the security, intelligence and law enforcement agencies to obtain communications data and to intercept communications within the appropriate legal framework… We will put in place the necessary regulations and safeguards to ensure that our response to this technology challenge is compatible with the government’s approach to information storage and civil liberties.

Soon, Home Office budget lines were reserving $3 billion for the project. What had changed? Not very much. The Home Office’s, office for Security and Counter-Terrorism (OSCT) still exists and is run by the same officials, including director Charles Farr, an ex-Afghanistan M16 agent. OSCT promoted both IMP and the CCDP.

The OSCT had been talking to industry and other bodies, including the Information Commission, which is in charge of UK data protection. Last November, its representatives met with the ISP Association (ISPA) to discuss how they might implement the CCDP.

During this period, my organization, the Open Rights Group, asked the Home Office for a meeting and minutes were turned down on cost grounds.

The OSCT and Home Office appear to have learned that the previous consultations, under Labour, provoked too much debate and opposition, and a quieter, more secretive approach would be more likely to dampen opposition and succeed. Campaigners such as ORG and Privacy International have had to rely on rumours and leaks to establish what might be happening.

The greatest uncertainties surround how the government will deal with the concerned companies, such as Google and Facebook. Why bother intercepting and storing this data, when you can simply ask for it directly?

In fact, this already happens. For example, Google publishes how many requests it gets for data about its users. In the UK, Google says it receives over 1,000 requests a year, and it complies with around 63 per cent of these.

However, this pales into insignificance against the 500,000 annual requests made under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA). Most of these are believed to be requests to phone companies asking who has registered a particular phone number. A smaller number will be traffic data.

Description: Facebook complies with requests in part: it doesn’t provide the full details of every message an individual sends, but will give subscriber information.

Facebook complies with requests in part: it doesn’t provide the full details of every message an individual sends, but will give subscriber information.

Meanwhile, Facebook complies with requests in part: it doesn’t provide the full details of every message an individual sends, but will give subscriber information. What’s more, if a company doesn’t comply with such requests, the UK police can usually ask through international legal agreements.

All RIPA requests are self-authorised by law enforcement, and they don’t require a magistrate or court to check that they’re reasonable. On the plus side, the government accepts that the number of bodies able to use RIPA powers should be more limited: the list once included the Milk Marketing Board, and still includes all local councils.

However, a complete list of someone’s friends and associates, along with a large proportion of their communications is much more intrusive than a phone bill, and potentially more open to a abuse. Stronger safeguards are needed, including independent supervision. Afterall, the Leveson inquiry has already shown that police and journalists colluded and shared information inappropriately.

Targeted collection, ‘data freezing’ or retaining data of genuine suspects, and targeted interception are all possible without CCDP. Responsible services may co-operate, and cross-border agreements ensure that data can be obtained no matter what the jurisdiction. In the long term, this legislation will also cause massive expense, especially given the number of services the hardware will need to intercept and read.

What is CCDP

Description: What is CCDP

What is CCDP

What is it?

The Communications Capabilities Development Plan aims to access details of everyone’s online communications, but not messages’ content. The government will sleek powers to compel companies such as Google to hand over this data under the Regulations of Investigatory Powers Act. It’s expected to ask ISPs to collect data from other companies by intercepting our online communications.

When did these plan start?

The CCDP is the successor to Labour’s Intercept ModernisationProgramme, debated in 2009.

Who’s pushing it?

The Home Office’s Office for Security and Counter-Terrorism, under director Charles Farr

What will be stored or accessed?

The time, location or IP address, and data about which users communicates with whom.

What do ISPs store already?

ISPs store the IP addresses of websites you visit, the time, ‘from and to’ details of your emails if you use your ISP’s email service, the times you can log on and off your Internet connection and your home IP address.

What does the government intercept already?

The government already has powers under RIPA, and it also has the technology for targeted interception of communications.

What do Internet companies do today?

Most major companies will comply with UK government requests. When they’re based in a country such as the USA, there are agreements between both countries to ensure that information needed for investigations can be handed over.

Take action

Visit www.openrightsgroup.org/issues/ccdp

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