With the passage of the Investigatory Powers Bill into law this week, the UK government has allowed a list of organizations to browse the Internet history of its citizens. The decision has been taken given to the emergency requirement of some online details for investigation purposes.
When the Investigatory Powers Bill has become a law now, it will require internet providers to keep a track of records of the users and offer full list if Internet Connection Records (ICR) for one year. This is to be done in case the UK government requires any detail about a case relating to the internet history.
How The Investigatory Powers Bill Will Help The UK Government
The Internet history-related bill, also known as Snooper's Charter, will ensure the UK government could take part in the surveillance of certain matters where government intervention is found necessary. The ICRs will not provide any description about which page has been focused by the internet surfer but it will provide the website address and the organizations will find out whatever details they require.
Belfast Telegraph stated that the ISPs would not be responsible to provide details to the organizations about what they did on the site, only the website address and the time of visit is all they would be asked for. As the name of the Investigatory Powers Bill suggests, if it is investigation-related laws, the key organizations that will be given the right to go through the internet history would include law enforcement departments, military and secret services, etc.
Organizations Allowed By The Investigatory Powers Bill To Browse Internet History
Other organizations listed by UK government as far as giving rights to browse citizens' internet history is concerned include the Gambling Commission, the Food Standards Agency, the Welsh Ambulance Services National Health Service Trust, etc. With the emergence of the Investigatory Powers Bill introduction in the UK Parliament, UK-based engineer Gareth Llewelyn got inspired and set up his own internet company to contribute in the betterment of the society and the nation as a whole.
To get the list of the organizations allowed by the bill to browse the internet history, readers can visit Schedule 4 of the bill.