If you live in the UK, your emails and website visits could soon be monitored, in real time, by the country's government if a proposed law is put into effect. The BBC reports that the intelligence agency GCHQ would be able to monitor emails, website access, texts and phone calls under the proposed legislation.
The report claims that the proposal could be officially announced this May as part of the annual Queen's Speech before being voted on in Parliament. The GCHQ would not look into the content of any of these communication services without first getting a warrant. However, the law would allow the government to know the name of the person who is using the service, who he or she is contacting and for how long.
In a statement, the Home Office claims it needs to have these additional monitoring rights to "maintain the continued availability of communications data as technology changes". However, some UK politicians have already slammed the proposal. One of them is Conservative MP David Davis. He states:
What this is talking about doing is not focusing on terrorists or criminals, it's absolutely everybody's emails, phone calls, web access... All that's got to be recorded for two years and the government will be able to get at it with no by your leave from anybody.
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