Home Secretary Theresa May has defended the collection of vast amounts of phone and internet data - as exposed by US whistleblower Edward Snowden.
"If you are searching for the needle in the haystack, you have to have a haystack in the first place," she said.
She told a Parliamentary committee citizens did not give their explicit consent to have their data harvested by the security services.
But there was an "unwritten agreement" that it was needed to "keep us safe".
Mrs May argued that collecting and storing phone and internet records was not the same as "mass surveillance" because "most of the data will not be looked at at all, will not be touched".
'Safe and secure'But she added that there was "a necessity in having the material in order to be able to search it in a very targeted way" and it was "hugely important" to have "large amounts" of it.
"The ability to interrogate that bulk data - to look for that needle in the haystack - is an important part of the processes that people go through in order to keep us safe," she told the intelligence and security committee
Mrs May replied: "I think there is - not a contract entered into - but an unwritten agreement between the individual and the state that the state is going to do everything they can to keep them safe and secure."
BBC News - Theresa May: We need to collect communications data 'haystack'
What next cctv in your home by unwritten agreement? As for the information being safe that's very unlikely given the record of government departments of misplacing data. It can't even find the paper files that were given on the Westminster Padeo ring *shrug*
"If you are searching for the needle in the haystack, you have to have a haystack in the first place," she said.
She told a Parliamentary committee citizens did not give their explicit consent to have their data harvested by the security services.
But there was an "unwritten agreement" that it was needed to "keep us safe".
Mrs May argued that collecting and storing phone and internet records was not the same as "mass surveillance" because "most of the data will not be looked at at all, will not be touched".
'Safe and secure'But she added that there was "a necessity in having the material in order to be able to search it in a very targeted way" and it was "hugely important" to have "large amounts" of it.
"The ability to interrogate that bulk data - to look for that needle in the haystack - is an important part of the processes that people go through in order to keep us safe," she told the intelligence and security committee
Mrs May replied: "I think there is - not a contract entered into - but an unwritten agreement between the individual and the state that the state is going to do everything they can to keep them safe and secure."
BBC News - Theresa May: We need to collect communications data 'haystack'
What next cctv in your home by unwritten agreement? As for the information being safe that's very unlikely given the record of government departments of misplacing data. It can't even find the paper files that were given on the Westminster Padeo ring *shrug*
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