The Big Question: Government 'right to give police snooping powers'

NEWS The UK police should be allowed to intercept private emails if it helps fight crime and terrorism, according to the leading ecommerce figures interviewed on this week's Big Question programme. Despite widespread criticism that the RIP Bill gives the police too much authority, this week's contributors told silicon.com that it was necessary for police to have so-called "snooping" powers, even if it angered civil liberties groups. Jane Fitzpatrick, founder and director of e-angel, said that giving the police power to intercept email was important in the fight against crime. "On the surface it would seem reasonable given that we're a country that has been subject to terrorism over the past few decades. However, having said that, these rules will have the human rights groups concerned," she said. Charles Baxter, senior information security manager at Barclays, agreed that in some situations it would be necessary for the police to hold this power. "In some cases there is information the police need to catch criminals and terrorists. But on the other hand there are commercial considerations of confidentiality. Law abiding citizens have a right to expect that their commercial information will remain confidential," he said. But Paddy Falls, CEO with iOra, claimed that the Bill would force companies out of the UK. "I don't think the government should intercept e-mail. It will impose requirements on ISPs to slow down their network performance in order to monitor the e-mail. The internet is global they will just go to another country and put their service on the internet," said Falls. Kathryn Bullock, chair of E-women, agreed: "It has to be done very carefully, as people still don't trust the web. Anything that makes them think other people are intercepting data will dash confidence" You can see this week's Big Question in our E-security Channel (http://www.silicon.com/a38475 ).