This isn't from news in Iran, North Korea, or China. It's happening in the UK as I write this. Last November the British Parliament enacted the Investigatory Powers Act which includes all the above and more. The new law allows for hacking into databases and personal devices of citizens in their country, but also into those who are not citizens. The concerns in America should not be that our British cousins might be investigating our Internet activities given that Microsoft, Facebook, and Google already are doing similar things for their own purposes. The concern should be over the role model that this British law is offering for other democracies to spy on their own citizens. I can't imagine who might be thinking of doing something like this in AmericaOpponents take issue with many parts of the legislation, but the most high-profile fight is over a new authority for the government to compel Internet service providers to retain “Internet connection records”—including websites visited or mobile apps used, the times they were accessed, and the duration of use—for up to 12 months for all their customers. Investigators won’t need a warrant from a judge to access this data. “There is no state in the Western democratic world that has anything similar,” says Eric King, a visiting lecturer on surveillance law at Queen Mary University of London and former deputy director of Don’t Spy on Us, a coalition of nongovernmental organizations that advocates for surveillance reform.
but the president now has been set.https://www.technologyreview.com/s/6033 ... lications/
