A bill giving the UK intelligence agencies and police the most sweeping surveillance powers in the western world has passed into law with barely a whimper, meeting only token resistance over the past 12 months from inside parliament and barely any from outside. The security agencies and police began the year braced for at least some opposition, rehearsing arguments for the debate. US whistleblower Edward Snowden tweeted: “The UK has just legalised the most extreme surveillance in the history of western democracy. One of the few positives in the legislation is that it sets out clearly for the first time the surveillance powers available to the intelligence services and the police. Privacy groups are challenging the surveillance powers in the European court of human rights and elsewhere.

Source: The Guardian November 19, 2016 07:00 UTC