What is the Snooper’s Charter and should you be worried? Here’s everything you need to know
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The Investigatory Powers Bill will be signed into UK law later this year, but what is it?
By Jason Murdock
The Investigatory Powers Bill – dubbed the Snooper’s Charter by critics – will be signed into UK law by the end of 2016. It will enhance the spying powers open to police, intelligence agencies and public bodies and will provide strong legal backing for “bulk” collection (and hacking) of communications.
That means metadata about your phone calls, text messages, Internet browsing histories, voice-call records and social media conversations will be stored by communications providers for at least 12 months and handed over to law enforcement and security services upon request.
It also will result in bulk interception of communications, bulk hacking and the collection of bulk personal datasets being given legal backing. Essentially, it legalises the slew of spy programs that have been used by GCHQ, MI5 and MI6 for years without parliamentary oversight.
The proposals, spearheaded by c...
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