New terrorist laws could hit small firms

The Government's plans to make all internet service providers (ISPs) record the details of every e-mail sent and received will add to the cost of maintaining a website, according to an article in the Times.

Benjamin Cohen, founder of QuickQuid.com, claims that as his own website has its own "e-mail server", this would make his company, in effect, a service provider, because the server is used to provide e-mail addresses for members of staff. Therefore he would be required to retain a copy of the details of every e-mail sent to and from the company.

Many thousands of other small businesses could be in a similar position.

Following the recent bombings in London, the Government has received renewed support in Brussels for regulations allowing the retention of e-mails and mobile telephone records.

Under the proposals, mobile operators and owners of e-mail servers will have to store the sender and receiver's details together with the time of the calls/messages for upwards of a year, but not the actual content of the message.

The proposed measures are unlikely to cause too many problems for the large telecom giants who provide mobile phone services. However, the tens of thousands of small ISP providers and small businesses who own web servers could face considerable costs in terms of time and money.