Tag Archives: Investigatory Powers Bill

The use of virtual private networks (VPNs) has increased dramatically in the UK as the controversial Digital Economy Bill and Investigatory Powers Bill have progressed through parliament. In the case of some VPNs, UK customers have more than doubled, with many concerned for their privacy and access to content. The …

An online petition demanding that the UK government repeal the newly installed surveillance laws made possible by the Investigatory Powers Bill has now passed the threshold for debate in parliament. It needed at least 100,000 signatures, but has continued on since then and is closing on on 120,000 at the …

The Investigatory Powers Bill is something that almost no one has approved of since its first announcement, with repeated debates and analysis heralding many concerns and problems, few of which have been rectified. Now the Culture, Media and Sport (CMS) committee has raised its own issues with the bill, citing …

Update: Following a vote in the House of Commons, MPs have passed the Investigatory Powers Bill with a majority of 444 to 69. With backing from both Labour and the Conservatives, the opposition from the Liberal Democrats, Green Party and the Scottish National Party failed to make much of a …

The British government's upcoming Investigatory Powers Bill (IPB) is set to have a further independent review, this time focusing in on the specific powers for “bulk collection.” Along with other measures of the bill, this has caused particular concern because of its potential for mass hacking of consumer devices. The …

Theresa May has been pushing the agenda for her “Snooper's Charter,” or to give it it's proper name, the Investigatory Powers Bill (IPB), for years now. Although she has claimed tracking everyone's browser history would aid in the fight against terrorism, research suggests that a lot of people would simply use …

It didn't take long for politicians to jump on the recent attacks in Brussels, as further evidence that the Theresa May driven Investigatory Powers Bill, more colloquially known as the Snooper's Charter, is needed. This despite many of the world's major tech firms claiming otherwise and now Apple has joined the likes …

Yesterday saw the British government publish the latest draft of the Investigatory Powers Bill and though it promised to take into consideration the three committees that have attacked it, addressing their 100+ concerns, it hasn't. In many cases it has ignored major problems raised by various parliamentary bodies and has …

The Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) of Parliament, a previously rather quite organisation has stepped out of the shadows to lambaste the British government over its proposed Investigatory Powers Bill, often termed the Snooper's Charter. It claims that the bill “lacks clarity,” and wants to see privacy protections, “form the …

Despite David Cameron and Theresa May calling for a better insight into the websites we visit with the potentially fast tracked Investigatory Powers Bill, a committee of politicians has warned that it lacks clarity, not defining key points. It warned that if the tech-firms that must be complicit in the …

Independent public data rights authority, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), has attacked plans by the government to push through the Investigatory Powers Bill, often called the Snooper's Charter. It claims that there is little justification for some of the measures it wishes to push through and claims that it weakens …

Apple has once again raised concerns about the British government's plans to introduce the Investigatory Powers Bill, waiting until the final moments of the public consultation to submit its eight page brief on its problems with the snooping act. It joins a number of consumer groups and other tech firms …

Taking the initiative following the British government's interest in bringing forward the Investigatory Powers Bill, Sky has announced that it will be introducing its filtering system automatically for all new customers (it won't even ask first) and will even go so far as to instigate a watershed-like system. Before 9PM, …

The Investigatory Powers Bill is being rushed to a parliamentary debate/vote in January following the recent attacks in Paris, because the government believes internet history logs can prevent terrorism. However the Labour party may stall the bill's progression, as it's demanding the government reveal information on the Shrewsbury 24 as …

“Never let a good crisis go to waste,” is a saying most often attributed to Winston Churchill, but he was far from the first person in a position of political power to consider this motto; he won't be the last either. David Cameron has announced that following the attacks in …

“We haven't had a Stasi or a Gestapo in Britain, so are intellectually lazy about surveillance,” said Tory MP David Davis recently, and that's something a lot of people seem to agree with. Following the publishing of the draft version of the Investigatory Powers Bill, proposed by Theresa May last week, …

One of the big issues privacy campaigners and some ministers had with the ‘Snooper's Charter' or as it was officially termed, the Draft Communications Data Bill, was that it would have made it mandatory for ISPs to record their customer's online actions for up to 12 months. While that was shot …

Police in the UK are lobbying the government to give them the powers to look at what they describe as the “where, when and what,” of online activities, essentially letting them view the browsing history of every single internet user in the UK, without being issued a warrant. The reasoning they …