UK Home Office Tests Web Surveillance with Internet Providers

Two British internet service providers (their names have not been disclosed) have been assisting the UK Home Office and the National Crime Agency in testing website traffic monitoring for several months. According to a report by the BBC, these companies are creating Internet Connection Records (ICRs) that show which websites a person has visited and when.

The ability to monitor website visits stems from the Investigatory Powers Act of 2016, which critics have dubbed the “Snooper’s Charter” due to widespread concerns about its scope. Digital rights advocates, upon learning of these tests, stated, “We should have the right not to have every click monitored just because there is a suspicion that criminal activity might occur.”

The records include the websites visited, the number of visits, the time spent on each site, and the corresponding IP addresses. However, individual pages or specific content remain hidden. Despite this, metadata can reveal a lot about a person’s habits, although there are restrictions on who can access this data and for what reasons.

The National Crime Agency stated that it “uses the data” to fight crime and assured that “regular reviews” are conducted to ensure that data collection is “necessary and proportionate.” The agency added, “Once a full evaluation of the trial is completed, a decision will be made on whether there are grounds for national deployment.”