The law is part of an EU directive that will cost the British government more then £25m in payment to ISP's. Although email content will not be kept, the time and frequency of emails will be monitored in order, the Home Office says, to combat crime.

As well as the issue of infringement of our civil liberties under Article 8 of the European Convention on human rights there is the issue of how workable and useful this costly endeavour will ultimately be. We have a technology expert - CEO and founder of Talkbiz.net, Martin Warner, who has said:

"Not many people would argue that greater monitoring of the internet is a bad thing. The Home Office however, is progressing towards the monitoring of actual content which is a concern for our fundamental right to privacy. Even at the level now under discussion though there are massive and costly impracticalities will be encountered. The government will be dealing with trillions of pieces of information that ultimately may not even be reliable."