From: FARS News Agency (Iran)

TEHRAN (FNA)- An European super-spying agency is to be granted draconian powers to access a vast range of our personal information, including medical data, criminal records, emails and website visits, report said.

The controversial move, demanded by Brussels in an EU directive, will sweep aside British privacy laws that protect the UK citizens from intrusion into their personal lives, Daily Mail reported.

Last night MPs, academics and privacy-rights groups warned that the new powers represented a great threat to individual security.

Under current the UK law, requests for electronic data have to be made through the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 on a case-by-case basis by a recognized authority.

But the Brussels plan to create a new ‘Interpol’ to fight cyber crime will give agencies across Europe ‘all necessary powers’ to order the disclosure of almost any online information.

Last night former shadow Home Secretary David Davis warned, “This is yet another unwelcome and surreptitious intrusion into the privacy of innocent citizens.”

Nick Pickles, director of privacy and civil liberties campaign group Big Brother Watch, said, “This represents a dangerous escalation in the way that cyber security is being justified as a reason to monitor us all.”

A spokesman for Britain’s Information Commissioner said, “Any measures to improve cyber security should not be at the unnecessary expense of people’s privacy”

“We will be looking at the recently announced directive and working with other EU data protection authorities to ensure measures are consistent with data-protection legislation.”

The controversial move comes as Britain’s own snooper’s charter for surveillance of the UK citizens, the Communications Data Bill, has ground to a halt in the face of fierce opposition.

But the new Brussels proposal could force internet companies and public bodies to disclose even more personal data.

At the heart of the plan is the little-known European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA). It will coordinate a network of specially created security agencies in each EU member state that will have unprecedented powers to demand data from public bodies and internet companies.

In the UK these will include NHS trusts, police forces, councils, Google and Facebook. This information could then be shared with other European agencies but without the safeguards that protect British citizens.

The plans, published on Thursday and backed by Labor’s Baroness and the EU Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherin Ashton, make clear that the powers are being demanded in the name of cyber security.

Under the proposals, agents working for the new cyber-crime agencies will be able to force disclosure of personal data where they suspect a company or public authority has been the victim of or is unable to prevent online hacking or any other cyber crime. Privacy groups say that such a broad definition will cover almost every company or public authority in the UK.