Britain’s intelligence agencies and police have been given unprecedented levels of power regarding the surveillance of its citizens after the Investigatory Powers Act, dubbed the ‘snooper’s charter’ officially become law. The Bill was given royal assent on Tuesday, meaning that the government’s sweeping surveillance rules will now pass into law in 2017. The new surveillance law requires web and phone companies to store everyone’s web browsing histories for 12 months and give the police, security services and official agencies unprecedented access to the data. It also gives security services and police new powers to hack into computers and phones and to collect communications data in bulk. The act was first proposed by Prime Minister Theresa May when she was Home Secretary and was approved by the House of Lords on November 19th. In a petition, critics who tried to repeal the surveillance bill described it as “an absolute disgrace to both privacy and freedom”. RT reports: It requires internet, phone and communication app companies to store customers’ records for 12 months and allow authorities to access them on demand. That data could be anything from internet search history, calls made or messages sent, and will be available to a wide [...]
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