New rules forcing internet companies to keep details of every e-mail sent in the UK were today condemned as a waste of money and gross invasion of people’s privacy.

The Government will have to pay between £25 million and £70 million to ensure companies obey the latest European Union directive, which comes into force in March.

Critics are lining up to condemn the plan.

Under the new rules, all internet service providers will have to retain data about e-mails which are sent and received in the UK for a year.

The content of individual e-mails will not be stored by the authorities, but the timing and number of each communication will be registered.

Critics include human rights group Liberty, and a host of computer experts.

Spam

Dr Richard Clayton, a security researcher at the University of Cambridge, said: “There’s going to be a record of every single e-mail which arrived addressed to you and all the e-mails you sent out via your ISP. That of course includes all the spam.

“There are much better things to do to spend our billions on than snooping on everybody in the country just on the off-chance that they’re a criminal.”

The Earl of Northesk, a Conservative peer on the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee, said: “People have to worry about the scale, the virtuality of your life being exposed to round about 500 public authorities.

“Under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, privacy is a fundamental right – it is important to protect the principle of privacy because once you’ve lost it it’s very difficult to recover.”

The Home Office said the data would be useful for combating crime.

A spokesman said: “Implementing the EC Directive will enable UK law enforcement agencies to benefit fully from his torical communications data in increasingly complex criminal and terrorist investigations and will enhance our national security.”

By Carl Jones