Britain seeks greater access to citizens’ online activity

One of the biggest and most controversial sections of the complex new laws will force broadband firms to hold basic details of the services and websites that you have accessed online.

Snowden said the powers given to security agencies in the bill amounted to access to “the activity log of your life”.

The Home Secretary Theresa May is pushing for a major overhaul of online surveillance laws. It will be examined in detail by both Houses of Parliament before a final bill is produced for consideration by MPs and Lords.

May said the data was “simply the modern equivalent of an itemized phone bill”. Data will be stored about everyone’s internet usage, not just those suspected of crime, terrorism and the like.

Will they be used against the innocent?

About the possibility of “Brexit”, she said that the United Kingdom was continuing its negotiations with the European Union on issues such as “free movement and benefits in relation to abuse and criminality”.

“The prime minister underlined that this is about maintaining the agencies’ current capabilities, that this is about the powers they need to keep us safe and about increasing public confidence in what they do and the process”.

Home Secretary Theresa May will tomorrow publish the new Investigatory Powers Bill, a draft bill that has been dubbed the “snooper’s charter Mark III”.

She has argued for similar rules to those governing phone records – which can be accessed without a ministerial warrant – for online communications.

It was also confirmed that the legislation will contain a requirement for internet companies to retain internet connection records for a maximum period of 12 months.

Instead it is proposing the ability to access basic data on domain addresses visited (not a full browsing history of pages within that site or search terms entered).

This means police officers would be able to see you have visited express.co.uk – but could not pin-point the individual pages within the website.

Councils will be unable to get these records, Home Office sources said.

The home secretary added that there is a new post of “Investigatory Powers Commissioner” with a “double lock” on getting warrants to approve any interception of communication.

The proposed legislation has been widely compared to the Communications Data Bill introduced in the 2012-13 legislative session, which was eventually dropped due to Liberal Democrat opposition.