Watch PORN online? This shocking new UK law might just change that

Internet firms will have to keep a record of your online viewing history for a calendar year

A NEW surveillance bill could force internet firms to keep a record of ALL of your online activity for a year.

 

The UK Government is set to introduce new measure which will allow it to search and read your internet history from the past year.

The radical new plans are part of the Conservative's new Investigatory Powers Bill.

The shocking bill – which was rumoured to enforce a ban on services like WhatsApp – aims to overhaul how police and security agencies can gain access to your data.

 

Home Secretary Theresa May unveiled the full extent of the draft British bill, which was watered down from an earlier version dubbed a Snoopers' Charter by critics who prevented it reaching parliament.

"It will provide the strongest safeguards and world-leading oversight arrangements," Theresa May told parliament.

"And it will give the men and women of our security and intelligence agencies and our law enforcement agencies... the powers they need to protect our country."

One of the biggest and most controversial new powers afforded in the bill will force broadband firms to hold basic details of the services and websites that you have accessed online.

 



Theresa May and David Cameron attend the Ceremonial Welcome for the Chinese State Visit



If the new laws are agreed, all personal internet searches will be held for a year and could be accessed at anytime by your internet service provider (ISP), police officers or the security agencies.

The recorded data would consist of a basic domain address – not a full browsing history.

This means police officers would be able to see you have visited express.co.uk – but could not pin-point the individual pages within the website.

But many internet users will still be alarmed to discover that this private information is being stored for a year.

 

The radical new plans are part of the Conservative's new Investigatory Powers Bill

"An internet connection record is a record of the communications service that a person has used - not a record of every web page they have accessed," the Home Secretary told the House of Commons. 

"It is simply the modern equivalent of an itemised phone bill."

An internet connection record is a record of the communications service that a person has used - not a record of every web page

Theresa May

She also said there would be no ban on encryption and in a concession to privacy groups, there would be a two-tier oversight system with a judge getting the power to veto warrants to intercept suspects' personal data, a move which could help ensure any new law is not struck down by the European courts.

The Government has been calling for new laws to give police and security services the power to access online communications data.

Home Secretary Theresa May insists this is an important issue, stating that some websites had become "safe havens" for serious criminals and terrorists.

The bill will be reviewed by legislators before it's submitted to Parliament for approval – but many are already skeptical.

 

"The thing that's really worrying about these new data- retention powers is that ... it doesn't matter whether you're guilty or innocent - the data is kept and that breaks a fundamental principle around surveillance that you do surveillance when you have suspicion," Jim Killock, executive director of Open Rights Group, told BBC radio.

He said it opened up the possibility of a more expansive use of the data than was suggested.

Ministers and officials have argued that current British laws governing surveillance powers are outdated, drafted in the days before anyone anticipated the widespread use of social media, leaving the police and security agencies unable to keep up with technology used by terrorists and serious criminals.