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Britain to grant spies more access to citizens' internet history

Xinhua, November 5, 2015 Adjust font size:

Britain introduced new legislation on Wednesday to give its security and intelligence agencies more investigatory powers, which would grant British spies access to citizens' internet browsing history.

The draft Investigatory Powers Bill sets out in detail the powers already available to law enforcement, MI5, MI6 and Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) and enshrines new capabilities for them, Britain's Home Office announced Wednesday.

The bill provides for the retention of internet connection records (ICRs), which means the internet activity of all people in Britain will have to be stored for a year by service providers.

Security and intelligence agencies will, without a warrant, be able to see the records of sites internet users have visited, according to the new legislation.

"Law enforcement access to the information would be on a case-by-case basis, where it was necessary and proportionate to do so in the course of an individual investigation, limited to three rigidly-defined purposes," the Home Office said in a statement.

"These are to identify what device had sent an online communication, establish what online communications services a known individual had accessed, or identify whether a known individual had accessed illegal services online," it added.

The Home Office also said warrants for the most intrusive powers available to the agencies, such as the interception of communications, would be subject to a "double-lock" and require approval by a judge as well as by the Secretary of State.

The Home Office also likened internet connection records to a phone bill -- a record of the communication services a computer or a smart phone connects to, but not people's full browsing history.

"The legislation responds to huge changes in the way we all communicate and seeks to ensure there are no 'no go' areas of the internet for law enforcement -- so that the entirety of cyberspace can be policed in the face of technological advances," the statement said.

British Home Secretary Theresa May described the publication of the draft Investigatory Powers Bill as a "decisive moment," saying that Britain needed to update its legislation to ensure it is "modern, fit for purpose, and can respond to emerging threats as technology advances."

"There should be no area of cyberspace which is a haven for those who seek to harm us to plot, poison minds and peddle hatred under the radar," she claimed.

The draft bill will go through full pre-legislative scrutiny before a revised Investigatory Powers Bill is put before the British Parliament in spring of 2016, said the Home Office. Endit