3.3 Even if conventional content is separated from other forms of information which have meaning, the expansion of opportunities for authorities to draw inferences about citizens’ intentions or behavior from patterns emerging from electronic traces of their activities is growing exponentially with increases in the volume of the data that citizens generate through their active and passive (e.g. mobile phones being carried from one place to another) use of digital technologies and networks.
3.4 There is no detail in the draft Bill as to what technical algorithms will be used to extract meaning from communications data or what standard of reliability is acceptable. Legislation should set a standard as an acceptable target for performance subject to review in the same way that standards are set for other public services. There need to be agreed target benchmarks against which the proportion of errors can be judged.

Robin Mansell’s evidence on the Draft Communications Data Bill (pdf)

Advertisement