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Controversial plans to allow spies and the police in the UK to look in on anyone’s internet browsing history have been dropped.
The Government has announced that it will no longer proceed with widely-criticsed plans to ban or dramatically weaken encryption so that it could read the messages of everyone in the country. While ministers described the change of policy as a climbdown, campaigning groups said that the move was spin and that many of the worst parts of Theresa May’s planned surveillance powers will remain.
The Government has long been looking to give sweeping new powers to spies, which would include the ability to look in on the communications of people in the UK. Senior politicians have repeatedly stressed that they would look to strengthen powers of the country’s spying agencies, and ban the technology that keeps them from snooping on communications.
The investigatory powers bill is the latest attempt to push through such powers, and will be published on Wednesday in draft form. But it will be without one of the major intrusive parts that had long been suggested, reports the Guardian.
The bill will in fact ban the police and intelligence services from looking in on people’s internet browsing histories, according to a statement. That power has been demanded by the security services, but their access to internet connections will instead “be strictly limited and targeted”, according to the statement.
Source: Independent UK