MPs Wave Through Snoopers' Charter in Face of Public Opposition

British members of parliament voted through the final stage of the controversial Investigatory Powers Bill - known as the Snoopers' Charter - in the lower house, paving the way for it to go to the House of Lords, in spite of deep criticism of its powers to collect mass communications data.

The proposed legislation passed its third reading in the House of Commons — largely because the Labor Party voted with the ruling Conservative Party — and now proceeds to the House of Lords, where amendments may be made and the bill could even be sent back to the Commons.

The Investigatory Powers Bill will allow the security services and the police to demand that all communications services providers (CSPs) collect and retain all data on email, phones calls, web browsing and other communications for up to a year.

Privacy campaigners say the proposed law will allow for the indiscriminate collection of data from every British citizen — even though they may not be under suspicion of having committed an offense.

#SnoopersCharter torys pushing snoopers charter, while using QCs to try and block investigations into Tory FRAUD pic.twitter.com/XipOHoKA7O

— jb whitesnake (@jbwhitesnake) 7 June 2016

​Bella Sankey, Director of Policy for human rights campaign group Liberty, said:

"This Bill would create a detailed profile on each of us which could be made available to hundreds of organizations to speculatively trawl and analyze. It will all but end online privacy, put our personal security at risk and swamp law enforcement with swathes of useless information."

Liberty's latest poll found that most people believe the powers in the bill should only be used against specific people suspected of criminal activity — not every person in Britain. Ninety percent of the public 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.

Critics say the proposed law will allow for the mass hacking of phones and other devices by intelligence agencies, the hacking of phones and devices by other public bodies, with police officers and immigration officers responsible for issuing warrants.

We hope MPs debating the #IPBill today listen to what the British people are telling them… #NoSnoopersCharter pic.twitter.com/2uauPagWdr

— Liberty (@libertyhq) 7 June 2016

​Hurdles Ahead

However, the bill will face further hurdles in the House of Lords and could be delayed after criticism from the influential parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR) which — in its latest report — 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.

Anderson has begun conducting a review into the operational case for the bulk collection powers detailed in the bill for the use of MI5, MI6 and GCHQ. Those powers relate to bulk interception, bulk acquisition, bulk equipment interference and bulk personal datasets.

In its case for allowing bulk data collection, the UK Government says, in supporting documents:

"Bulk powers have been essential to the security and intelligence agencies over the last decade and will be increasingly important in the future. The acquisition and use of bulk data — information acquired in large volumes and used subject to special restrictions — provides vital and unique intelligence that the security and intelligence agencies cannot obtain by any other means."