Police seek powers to access browsing history of UK computer users

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Police seek powers to access browsing history of UK computer users

November 2nd, 2015

Awake Goy

Police have lobbied the government for the power to view the internet browsing history of every computer user in Britain ahead of the publication of legislation on regulating surveillance powers.

Senior officers want to revive the measures similar to those contained in the“snooper’s charter”, which would force telecommunications companies to retain for 12 months data that would disclose websites visited by customers, reported the Times.

Police said they need the powers to because the scale of activity carried out online meant traditional methods of surveillance and investigation were becoming more limited.

Richard Berry, the National Police Chiefs’ Council spokesman for data communications refused to comment on any specifics of the forthcoming legislation, but told the paper the police were not looking for anything beyond what they could already access through telephone records.

Berry, assistant chief constable at Gloucestershire police, said: “We want to police by consent, and we want to ensure that privacy safeguards are in place.