Earlier this week, The Investigatory Powers Bill was all but passed into law. This means that within a few weeks a huge number of governmental bodies will be able to check out your entire Internet browsing history.
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Feeling nervous yet?
It means that Internet providers will legally keep a full list of Internet Connection Records (ICRs), on all people, for a year, and make them available to the government, if requested.
A lot of people are quite angry about this, because, why should the government be allowed to look at the history of innocent people? The term 'if you've done nothing wrong, then you've got nothing to worry about' is thrown around, but I have a counter term, which I think works better: 'If you've done nothing wrong, then the government should keep the fuck out of your private business'.
Some of them, the government can attempt to justify, like the police, for example. But others I'm struggling to see the relevance. Why the does the Food Standards Agency need to know what I've been looking at? What are the Welsh Ambulance Service hoping to glean from looking at the Internet search history of anyone?
Here's the list in full, if you care:
- Metropolitan police force
- City of London police force
- Police forces maintained under section 2 of the Police Act 1996
- Police Service of Scotland
- Police Service of Northern Ireland
- British Transport Police
- Ministry of Defence Police
- Royal Navy Police
- Royal Military Police
- Royal Air Force Police
- Security Service
- Secret Intelligence Service
- GCHQ
- Ministry of Defence
- Department of Health
- Home Office
- Ministry of Justice
- National Crime Agency
- HM Revenue & Customs
- Department for Transport
- Department for Work and Pensions
- NHS trusts and foundation trusts in England that provide ambulance services
- Common Services Agency for the Scottish Health Service
- Competition and Markets Authority
- Criminal Cases Review Commission
- Department for Communities in Northern Ireland
- Department for the Economy in Northern Ireland
- Department of Justice in Northern Ireland
- Financial Conduct Authority
- Fire and rescue authorities under the Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004
- Food Standards Agency
- Food Standards Scotland
- Gambling Commission
- Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority
- Health and Safety Executive
- Independent Police Complaints Commissioner
- Information Commissioner
- NHS Business Services Authority
- Northern Ireland Ambulance Service Health and Social Care Trust
- Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service Board
- Northern Ireland Health and Social Care Regional Business Services Organisation
- Office of Communications
- Office of the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland
- Police Investigations and Review Commissioner
- Scottish Ambulance Service Board
- Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission
- Serious Fraud Office
- Welsh Ambulance Services National Health Service Trust
What the actual hell?
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A petition has been set up to try and get the law reversed, and I'd say the list of names on that petition are definitely going to be the first ones to have their search history rooted through.
If you fancy joining that list, you can sign it here.
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