Email, web search and database cartoon – Me and my digital shadow © Matt Buck Hack Cartoons for NO2ID

The government of the UK now requires your internet service provider (ISP) to keep details of all your email and web searches for one year. There’s a report from The Independent here. Specialist IT reporters such as Techcrunch and more overt campaigning organisations like No2id and Liberty worry this is a step towards a giant state-sponsored communications monitoring database which the government has been consulting on in the past few years. Outlaw.com have an archive of articles on the issue (search for UK data retention) and The Telegraph have a handy Q+A piece here.

The UK Home Office website and advice on the retaining of personal data is here.