Überwachung des Internet-Verkehrs?

Ich bin mir immer wieder unsicher, wie ich solche Meldungen wie diese bei der BBC verstehen soll:

The Home Office says it will push ahead with plans to ask communications firms to monitor all internet use.[…] The Home Office says it wants to change the law to compel communication service providers (CSPs) to collect and retain records of communications from a wider range of internet sources, from social networks through to chatrooms and unorthodox methods, such as within online games. Ministers say that they do not want to create a single government-owned database and only intend to ask CSPs to hold a record of a contact, rather than the actual contents of what was said.