Home Secretary Theresa May has unveiled government plans to introduce a new bill that would enable the security services to track the electronic communications of the UK’s citizens.

The bill, which has been released in draft form, has already received a great deal of criticism from civil liberty campaigners. But May attempted to defend the legislation, stating: “It’s not about the content, it’s not about reading people’s emails or listening to their telephone calls. This is purely about the who, when and where made these communications and it’s about ensuring we catch criminals and stop terrorists.”

As the law currently stands, communications companies have to keep phone records and email logs for a year. This new bill would see them hold onto a much wider range of data.
It would require internet service providers to hold onto details of people’s every move, including use of social media sites, activity in gaming sites – many of which are being used by terrorists to communicate – and the websites that are visited, although pages within websites would not be recorded. Continue Reading

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