The proposed safeguards, which are the subject of a seven-week consultation, include:Communications data requests to be authorised by a new body, the Office for Communications Data Authorisation, under the investigatory powers commissioner, Lord Justice Fulford. In the case of internet connection records – tracking personal web browsing histories – the threshold remains at 12 months. The retention or acquisition of communications data will no longer be allowed for public health, tax collection or to regulate the financial markets. Mandatory guidance on the protection of retained data in line with European data protection standards. “We warned the government from the start that the authoritarian surveillance powers in the Investigatory Powers Act were unlawful.

Source: The Guardian November 30, 2017 14:37 UTC