UK police & spies will have warrantless access to your browsing history

A new plan from Tory Home Secretary/Sith Lord Theresa May will require ISPs to retain one year's worth of Britons' online activity, and hand it over to the police and security services on demand, without a warrant.

They will still need a warrant to see the content of websites that you visit, unless, you know, they just visit one of those links from your browsing history.

ISPs are being bought off with the promise of being compensated for their role in the mass surveillance. All of this data will leak, of course, and destroy the lives of millions of Britons.

Mrs May previously told the Commons enforcement agencies needed more powers to do their jobs effectively.

“I've said many times before that it is not possible to debate the balance between privacy and security, including the rights and wrongs of intrusive powers and the oversight arrangements that govern them without also considering the threats that we face as a country," she told MPs.

"Those threats remain considerable and they are evolving.

"They include not just terrorism from overseas and home-grown in the UK, but also industrial, military and state espionage.

"They include not just organised criminality, but also the proliferation of once physical crimes online, such as child sexual exploitation. And the technological challenges that that brings.

"In the face of such threats we have a duty to ensure that the agencies whose job it is to keep us safe have the powers they need to do the job."

Police to be granted powers to view your internet history
[Nicola Harley/The Telegraph]

(Image: Theresa May MP, Hekerui, CC-BY)