Security Minister Lord West is reported as saying there is no firm policy position yet on whether the government's proposed Communications Data Bill will establish a database of phone call data, mobile phone location and internet usage. Lord West also pointed out that internet users are currently often unaware of how much data their activities reveal - all the while noting that he was 'unclear' about the legal position of BT's trials of the Phorm user-tracking system. The EU's Information Society and Media Commissioner Viviane Reding seems to be in no such doubt.
What is clear is that technical capability and legislation frequently progress at different rates. It's tempting to think of technology always outstripping the legal machine, but that's not an entirely accurate model. For example, take the EU's bi-annual Ministerial Conference on e-Government. Every two years the participants know they have to come up with something which advances on the previous conference's policy statements and reflects some form of measured progress in implementation. Usually the tension seems to be in that latter goal: it's not so much the technology which lags behind, as the ability to put it into effective use on a continental scale.
Of course, in the case of the Communications Data Bill "effective use" doesn't necessarily mean just making interception of all traffic possible; it means doing so in a way which balances the law enforcement requirement against risks like inappropriate disclosure, abuse of personal or sensitive data, and the longer-term effects on civil liberties (to which, to do him credit, the Information Commissioner Richard Thomas drew attention in his comment on the story). The devil's in the democracy.
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