A bill is being prepared to expand the Internet powers of the British police

Next week, UK Home Secretary Theresa May will introduce a new investigative powers bill to help law enforcement agencies fight terrorism. The bill, in particular, provides for a significant expansion of police powers in monitoring the online lives of citizens, up to the ability to view the browser history of all British users without exception.

Under the provisions of the new investigative powers bill, which British Home Secretary Theresa May will introduce in the House of Commons on Wednesday, police will have access to the browsing history of any British user. In accordance with the requirements of the bill, all telecommunications and Internet providers will be required to save the history of users' website visits for 12 months. It is planned that providers will receive money for storing messages, emails of their customers and any data about Internet use, so that they can then be viewed, if necessary, by the police, the National Crime Agency, intelligence agencies and Revenue and Customs fees

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Now providers, in some cases, also provide the police with such data, but the law does not oblige them to do this. With the help of web search history, the police will have access to the sites that a particular user visited and the information that he searched for on the Internet. However, in order to access the content of these sites and the content of communications on social networks, the police will need prior permission from the court.

British civil liberties advocates believe that this bill will open a direct path to total control over citizens. But law enforcement agencies insist that expanding their powers is urgently needed because the range of criminal activity on the Internet has expanded significantly in recent years and cannot be dealt with through traditional surveillance and investigation methods. In an interview with The Times, Richard Berry, a spokesman for the National Police Chiefs' Council, explained the new powers: "We need answers to the 'who, where, when and what' of every communication - who initiated it, where they were and when it happened." . Also, did they communicate on Facebook, on a banking site, or on a site where they exchange images of scenes of child abuse. Five years ago, a suspect could physically walk into a bank and carry out a transaction. We could involve an investigative team in this case. But now most of these cases are done online. We just need to know about the fact of the visit.”

British Home Secretary Theresa May justified the need for expanded powers by saying that “the threats facing the country remain serious and they are constantly changing.” So, according to her, the UK is threatened “not only by foreign terrorists or domestic terrorists, but also by industrial, military or government espionage”, “not only by organized crime, but also by the online spread of crimes such as the sexual exploitation of children.”

Alena Miklashevskaya

British police claim content from all browsers