The British Parliament has passed a new snooping law that authorises everyone from police and spies to food regulators, fire officials, and tax inspectors power to look at internet browsing records of all in the country.
Law requires telecom companies to keep record of all users’ web activity for a year, creating databases of personal information that could be vulnerable to leaks and hackers.
Civil liberties groups say the law establishes mass surveillance of British citizens, following innocent internet users to their personal lives.
Tim Berners Lee, the computer scientist who
invented the
World Wide Web, tweeted news of the law’s passage with the words: dark, dark days.
Investigatory Powers Bill was dubbed snooper’s charter by critics was passed by Parliament in Nov 2016 after more than year of debate and amendments.
It will become law following royal assent next week.
