Britain Will Require Google, Others to Keep Logs of Users’ Activities

Home Secretary Hopes to Expand Bill Even Further

A new measure added to Britain’s Counter-terrorism and Security Bill will require all online service providers, such as Google and Yahoo, to create and retain complete logs of all users activities through computers and mobile phones, nominally so the government can  check them for “criminal activity.”

Officially, this is being pushed as going after both organized crime and terrorist organizations, along with “cyber bullies,” but it covers literally everyone with a British IP address.

The bill has seen some opposition from the Liberal Democrats, but is being presented to them by the Cameron government as their only alternative to even more “illiberal” policies.

The Home Secretary is backing the bill, but also wants it to be dramatically expanded, seeking to give security services a complete list of every website every person in Britain visits, and what they did there.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.