Electronic surveillance

UK Becomes Surveillance State, Passes New Spying Law on All Citizen Web Activity

The United Kingdom recently passed legislation providing the government with sweeping new surveillance powers on Internet activity, unprecedented in any Western democracy.

The Investigatory Powers Bill will authorize the UK government’s mass surveillance program of online activity. This will mandate a record be kept for one year of every citizen’s Web activity, including phone metadata. All Internet service providers will be required to keep Internet connection records for their customers, and will be paid to do so by the government. Then, law enforcement will be able to request this information at will, without any judicial oversight whatsoever.

Famed whistleblower Edward Snowden, noted that the UK’s new surveillance powers may rival, or even surpass, those of many totalitarian governments...