UK Mass Surveillance

[xoxoxoBruce]

Hmm

[Carruthers]

The Security Service (aka MI5) had been quietly accessing phone records for years before attempts were made to put the practice on a statutory footing.

From Wikipedia...

The Draft Communications Data Bill (nicknamed the Snoopers' Charter or Snooper's Charter) is draft legislation proposed by Home Secretary Theresa May in the United Kingdom which would require Internet service providers and mobile phone companies to maintain records of each user's internet browsing activity (including social media), email correspondence, voice calls, internet gaming, and mobile phone messaging services and store the records for 12 months. Retention of email and telephone contact data for this time is already required by the Data Retention Regulations 2014. The anticipated cost is £1.8 billion.

May originally expected the bill to be introduced in the 2012–13 legislative session, carried over to the following session, and enacted as law in 2014. However, the former Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg withdrew his support for this bill in April 2013 and his Liberal Democrat party blocked it from being reintroduced during the 2010-2015 Parliament. Shortly after the Conservative victory in May 2015, Theresa May vowed to introduce the Communications Data Bill in the next parliament. In November 2015, May announced a new Draft Investigatory Powers Bill similar to the Draft Communications Data Bill, although with more limited powers and additional oversight.

The whole business is complicated beyond belief, but have a glance at these Wikipedia articles if you have some time to kill.

Draft Communications Data Bill

Draft Investigatory Powers Bill

[xoxoxoBruce]

God bless Nick Pickles.