Weekly Roundup 11/29
Happy Tuesday, Readers. This month the UK Parliament passed a digital surveillance law that gives authorities the power to view the browsing histories of the entire nation. The Investigatory Powers Bill requires internet service providers to keep records of all users’ internet activity for one year, creating databases of personal information that critics say make an easy target for hackers.
This bill comes as a huge blow to privacy advocates, giving government agencies such as the police, customs and revenue officials, and even the Food Standards Agency access to browser history data without a warrant. Though individual web pages will not be listed, an itemized list of all visited sites will be available for official use. Whistleblower Edward Snowden weighed in, tweeting “The UK has just legalised the most extreme surveillance in the history of western democracy. It does further than many autocracies.”
The law could take several months to a year to fully implement, and not all internet providers need to comply - only those specifically asked by the government. An online petition to repeal the bill has reached over 100,000 signatures, though news of this bill has been largely overshadowed by Britain's recent exit from the European Union. The bill was met with little resistance from inside parliament, and security experts are gearing up to create secure databases of this sensitive and formerly private information.
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