Described as an ‘authentic May bill’ from when Prime Minister Theresa May was Home Secretary the bill seeks more powers for monitoring internet behaviour and use.
Peers are expected to consider Commons amendments on public telecommunications systems, interception without lawful authority and civil liability.
The Bill passed its first commons vote in March 2016 and moved to committee. The bill passed in June with Labour support after negotiations with the government on bulk data collection.
The bill will have a Ping Pong debate in the House of Lords.
The bill proposes new powers for police forces and UK intelligence agencies for tracking web use and interception of communication.
It also proposes the allowance of bulk collection of data on communications and bulk interception.
The establishment of a new Investigatory Powers Commission to oversee the use of invepowers.
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The bill would require service providers to retain ‘connection records’ of UK internet users for one year – this would record which web sites were visited but not which pages and not the full browsing history.
It would allow police and intelligence officers to see the Internet connection records without a warrant.
It would allow authorities to hack into devices and access their data
It would force service providers to assist with targeted interception of data.
Give local government some powers to investigate records.
The bill is highly controversial because of the proposals on interception and bulk data collection. It also puts the onus on communications service providers to cooperate with authorities – putting this cooperation on a legal footing.
While the House of Lords is debating the bill reports of Backdoors being discovered in cheap Android phones which send user’s location and data back to China are circulating.
