Investigatory Powers Bill: ‘Snoopers Charter 2’ to pass into law, giving Government sweeping spying powers

Nov 18, 2016 by Jill

by Andrew Griffin, Independent:

The House of Lords has passed the Investigatory Powers Bill, putting the huge spying powers on their way to becoming law within weeks.

The bill – which forces internet companies to keep records on their users for up to a year, and allows the Government to force companies to hack into or break things they’ve sold so they can be spied on – has been fought against by privacy campaigners and technology companies including Apple and Twitter.

But the Government has worked to continue to pass the bill, despite objections from those companies that the legislation is not possible to enforce and would make customers unsafe.

The apparently final part of the Government’s fight to have the powers passed came as it refused to budge over its proposed new surveillance powers by rejecting for a second time amendments from peers linked to phone hacking.

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