Apple pushes against UK plans to extend online surveillance

In November 2015, Home Secretary Theresa May introduced the bill to Parliament and Apple responded to the British Parliamentary Scrutiny Committee on 21 December 2015 with an eight-page submission explaining how the bill threatens the privacy of “the personal data of millions of law-abiding citizens. Apple said the draft laws could weaken data encryption, sanction interference with its products, force non-UK companies to break the laws of their home countries, and spark similar legislation in other countries that could paralyse firms under the weight of dozens of contradictory laws. The UK government, which failed with a previous attempt to increase online surveillance dubbed the snoopers charter, has said the proposals will not ban encryption or do anything to undermine the security of peoples data.

If passed into law, the bill will establish a new set of surveillance powers and allow security and intelligence agencies to have greater insight into the websites visited by internet users. With the Investigatory Powers Bill in place, the UK government will have the authority to require UK ISPs to keep a running log of all digital activities and the information gathered from them. This could include everything from media consumption habits and banking activity, to health concerns and political affiliations.