MI5 collects phone data for 10 years to determine terrorist connections

It has emerged that MI5 has covertly been collecting significant quantities of data about phone calls over the past decade, in order to search for terrorist connections.

The programme has been running under a law described as ‘vague’ by the government’s terror watchdog. The revelation came to light as Home Secretary Theresa May delivered a draft bill governing online monitoring by the authorities, which, if confirmed will grant service providers the authority to store the internet activity of everyone in Britain for up to a year.

As a result, police and intelligence officers will be able to evaluate an individual’s internet activity by examining the names of sites that suspected criminals have visited, without the need for a warrant.

While the Home Secretary maintained these powers were necessary to fight crime and terrorism, many civil liberties campaigners have argued it represented a ‘breathtaking’ attack on the internet security of everyone in the UK.

The draft bill aims to provide the investigative activities of the police and intelligence agencies such as MI5 and MI6, a stronger legal cover.

A supporting document to the bill also revealed that the UK security services have been allowed to collect vast amounts of data on phone calls to ‘identify subjects of interest within the UK and overseas’. Furthermore, US whisteblower Edward Snowden revealed Britain’s secret listening post GCHQ has been intercepting internet messages flowing through Britain in bulk ‘to acquire the communications of terrorists and serious criminals that would not otherwise be available’.

The government's independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, David Anderson QC, said the legislation used to authorise the collection was "so vague that anything could be done under it".

He added: "It wasn't illegal in the sense that it was outside the law, it was just that the law was so broad and the information was so slight that nobody knew it was happening".