UK is eyeing to pass a new bill requiring internet firms to keep record their costumers' web history. This draft of Investigatory Powers Bill is worrying some major telecommunications companies in the United States.
Finance Yahoo reported that major U.S. telecom companies are commending United Kingdom to review the new bill. The bill is requiring them to help spies get into their costumers electronic devices. The internet firms are needed to record at most a year of web history of all the costumers' activities. The U.K. is doing this to help spies get into the accounts of the people they are on to.
New York Times stated that Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Twitter and Yahoo did a joint submission against the bill. They submitted to a committee of British lawmakers that the bill will likely harm many things. One of the things that may be affected is the online encryption. Online encryption is very important as it is like the fundamental security tool of any device. "To the extent this could involve the introduction of risks or vulnerabilities into products or services, it would be a very dangerous precedent to set," said in the submission.
The committee is reviewing the submitted case that was made last month and published Thursday by them according to Phys.org. It was not only those big telecom companies that were against the bill but also Apple. Apple said that it will ultimately weaken security. By giving access to the "bad guys" accounts, the "good guys" account will also be opened because online security was not as tough as before. Many civil groups were also frightened by this bill.
U.K. Parliament says the bill will definitely not weaken the online encryption but will help solve many cases. The bill will let access of list of websites, apps and messaging services someone has visited to the police and spies.
An earlier version of the law was unaccepted by lawmakers in 2013 as overly invasive. Nothing is final yet as the government will release final proposals in the spring.
