Internet service providers are now logging all emails and phone calls made by users over the internet, after a new EU directive came into effect yesterday.
Every email and phone call made online will now be stored by internet service providers (ISPs).
The move, which came into force yesterday, is the result of an EU directive created after the 2005 London bombings. The UK government has suggested the rule is vital to "protect public safety and security", but privacy campaigners - along with some European countries - believe it goes too far.
"This is the kind of technology that the Stasi would have dreamed of," said Phil Noble from privacy group NO2ID. "We are facing a coordinated strategy to track everyone's communications, creating a dossier on every person's relationships and transactions. "It is clearly preparatory work for the as-yet un-revealed plans for intercept modernisation."
The information stored by the ISPs does not contain any content, but is only used to determine who individuals have been in contact with. A statement from the Home Office said that the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 "ensures that effective safeguards are in place and that the data can only be accessed when it is necessary and proportionate to do so".
The statement continued: "Communications data is the where and when of the communication and plays a vital part in a wide range of criminal investigations and prevention of terrorist attacks, as well as contributing to public safety more generally.
"Without communications data resolving crimes such as the Rhys Jones murder would be very difficult if not impossible."
