Surveillance bill goes through British Parliament and awaits only the Royal assent to become law before the year ends.

Dark Reading Staff, Dark Reading

November 17, 2016

1 Min Read

'Snoopers’ Charter,' officially knows as The Investigatory Powers Bill, is all set to become law before the year ends after it was passed by the British Parliament and awaits the Queen’s stamp of approval, The Register reports.

The bill, which is widely regarded as being the most stringent of its kind, had its first draft published in November 2015 and was passed by both Houses of Parliament with the Labour Party abstaining.

Under the new legislation, Internet service providers will have to store a back-up of the browsing activities of their users for 12 months and make it available to authorities whenever needed. It will also legalize offensive hacking and bulk collection of personal data by the authorities, despite concerns that this could lead to flaws being exploited to reveal more data than required.

This law will legalize what the British government had secretly been doing all along, Prime Minister Theresa May conceded when publishing the first draft.

Read full story here.

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Dark Reading Staff

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