UK Prime Minister David Cameron has long tried to push through a bill, allowing for the security services and the police to be able to demand that communications services providers (CSPs) collect and retains data on emails, website browsing, telephone calls and other communications data for up to a year.
(New Statesman):The Home #Office still has questions to answer on the #Snooper's Charter.. https://t.co/Iig1nUxlz9 pic.twitter.com/WKBsMmqdPy
— NewsOnePlace (@newsoneplace) 2 June 2016
Cameron's first attempt at passing the law — in his first coalition government formed in 2010 — failed because of opposition from the Liberal Democrats. Having won a slim majority in the 2015 election, Cameron again introduced the bill, but his efforts have been criticized by privacy campaigners, who say the mass collection of data goes against the basic principles of privacy and freedom of speech under the human rights convention.
A new poll, commissioned by campaign group Liberty, has revealed nine out of ten British adults believe state surveillance powers proposed by the Investigatory Powers Bill are not acceptable.
90% of Brits opposed to bulk snooping — yet 72% are completely in the dark about the #IPBill https://t.co/dL1NqAduNW pic.twitter.com/s4rTHZe7e2
— Liberty (@libertyhq) June 5, 2016
Most either say it is only acceptable for the Government to access and monitor records of their emails, text messages, phone calls and online browsing history, if they are suspected of or have committed a crime — or say this practice is never acceptable.
The #SnoopersCharter will be debated in @HouseofCommons today — Read our Policy team's in-depth briefing here: https://t.co/K2snnfvdvQ
— Liberty (@libertyhq) 6 June 2016
"Useless Information"
Bella Sankey, Director of Policy for Liberty, said: "In its effort to expand the surveillance state, the Government is already ignoring technology experts, service providers and three cross-party parliamentary committees — but the views of the British public will be harder for even the Home Secretary to dismiss.
"The vast majority of people know nothing about this Bill but, when asked, overwhelmingly reject this approach — MPs must listen to those they represent, vote against this rotten legislation and give us the effective, targeted system the British people want, need and deserve."
The bill is set to be further delayed after the influential parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR) said that powers for the bulk collection of data from a wide variety of sources (known as "bulk powers") should be referred to the Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation, David Anderson QC before being voted on by parliament.
The committee report also stated that the requirement that the prime minister be consulted if any monitoring of members of parliament was requested by the security services was inadequate and that there were insufficient safeguards for journalists and lawyers for whom client- and source-confidentiality was an important principle.
UK Home Secretary Theresa May has conceded ground over the collections of data from members of parliament and agreed to concessions over journalists, in that the judicial commissioner must first agree a "public interest" test before using data collection to identify their sources.
