UK Police to be Granted Powers to View Your Internet History

UK Police will be granted the power to view the internet history of every person in the country under new plans proposed by Tory Home Secretary Theresa May. On Wednesday, May will announce the Conservative Government’s new surveillance bill in the House of Commons on Wednesday (4th November), and the new police powers will be granted under the bill, according to The Telegraph.

The bill would require internet service providers to retain the browsing history of every customer for 12 months, and to give police and intelligence agencies access to that data, which would include search engine terms and websites visited.

“I’ve said many times before that it is not possible to debate the balance between privacy and security, including the rights and wrongs of intrusive powers and the oversight arrangements that govern them without also considering the threats that we face as a country,” May told MPs. “Those threats remain considerable and they are evolving. They include not just terrorism from overseas and home-grown in the UK, but also industrial, military and state espionage.”

“They include not just organised criminality, but also the proliferation of once physical crimes online, such as child sexual exploitation. And the technological challenges that that brings,” she added. “In the face of such threats we have a duty to ensure that the agencies whose job it is to keep us safe have the powers they need to do the job.”

A YouGov poll on behalf of Big Brother Watch from 2012 shows that 71% of people do not trust that the Government will keep their data secure.