Police to be granted powers to view your internet browsing history

[DodgyAgent]

...and how many of us can say that we have found ourselves on andywsmum?

[VectraMan]

Using a VPN isn't suspicious lots of companies make you to use one to connect to their servers if working away site.

I'm connected to one right now in fact. But if they can see what sites you visit they can see who you VPN to, and a paid or overseas VPN service is more suspicious than a company VPN server.

[TestMangler]

They'd need to have some amount of staying power to review my GrannyPorn videos history

[DaveB]

Linkies :

Top cops demand access to the UK's entire web browsing history
Investigatory Powers Bill to update UK communications data laws
Q&A: what is the Investigatory Powers Bill? | The Times (paywall)

Resurrection of the original "Snoopers Charter" that was proposed by the Tories in the past government and scuppered by the LibDems.

Essentially an extension of what was required under RIPA but now becomes a blanket collection of internet usage metadata by ISP's. They will be required to log traffic info such as date, time, type of traffic and destination of anything that goes through their networks and keep it for later use by Law Enforcement agencies.

Using Private Browsing locally won't help you. That just stops it being saved in your browser history for when you are "Buying a surprise gift for your wife".

Using a VPN will hide the content but not the source and destination so they will still see you visiting www.Jihadies4You.com or sending an email to [email protected]

Even if you are jumping onto a Tor node the fact that you are doing that will still be logged. Same with going via a Proxy, that will be recorded and if the proxy is keeping logs they can go get those as well or get the ISP the proxy is on to give them the info on whats leaving the proxy.

Changing your IP won't help, DHCP records at the ISP will still link you to the ones you use if it's dynamic, or DNS records if you change it manually. It's all backed up so they can trawl through it if needs be.

As ever, the proposals are "For our own safety" and "in the interests of national security" but will doubtless come in very handy when the next "threat" is identified. Especially if it happens to be a civil liberties group, investigative journalists or anyone who disagrees with the government of the day.

[d000hg]

Complete non-techy here, but wouldn't they get this information from your ISP so incognito becomes a moot point?

Maybe there's different levels of warrant needed? Searching your history can be done in a few moments, accessing your ISP records requires asking the ISP for the data, etc?

And you have to remember the vast majority don't know anything about IT, and most criminals are not that bright.

[Pondlife]

4G PAYG simcards.

[NickFitz]

Depends on whether you have a static or dynamic IP address and how often you reboot your router (if it's dynamic), I think.

The ISP still knows which customer had which IP address at any given time. I think that's among the data they're required to keep for some ridiculous length of time, too.

[SpontaneousOrder]

As ever, the proposals are "For our own safety" and "in the interests of national security" but will doubtless come in very handy when the next "threat" is identified. Especially if it happens to be a civil liberties group, investigative journalists or anyone who disagrees with the government of the day.

Or gay men anally fisting their husbands, women who ejaculate, or people who like to pee on one another.

Security is one thing (and I still don't think it can be morally justified) but when they've already proven that they can't be trusted to have access to our data without discriminating against certain demographics (e.g. the previously mentioned gays who are overrepresented), then this sounds absurd.

[SueEllen]

4G PAYG simcards.

People have been arrested wrongly, for the use of 3G PAYG sims. The sim seller is required to take a name and address for the sim.

[Zero Liability]

If the ISP are logging what you're doing then they're going to know who uses which IP and when. The only way round it is to use a VPN, but then the fact you're using a VPN makes you stand out as suspicious and then they can demand logs from the VPN provider.

I wonder if that will apply to ones like UnblockUS, as well.

What slightly worries me (to be serious for a moment) is that you don't need to enter a URL to visit a site. A lot of times you get redirected to something you weren't expecting. So you might click on something on nicechristianladies.com and actually find yourself at andywsmum.com, but if the police are looking at your logs they can't tell that you didn't intend to look at such filth, and you can't prove it either.

That crossed my mind, too.

Linkies :

Top cops demand access to the UK's entire web browsing history
Investigatory Powers Bill to update UK communications data laws
Q&A: what is the Investigatory Powers Bill? | The Times (paywall)

Resurrection of the original "Snoopers Charter" that was proposed by the Tories in the past government and scuppered by the LibDems.

Essentially an extension of what was required under RIPA but now becomes a blanket collection of internet usage metadata by ISP's. They will be required to log traffic info such as date, time, type of traffic and destination of anything that goes through their networks and keep it for later use by Law Enforcement agencies.

Using Private Browsing locally won't help you. That just stops it being saved in your browser history for when you are "Buying a surprise gift for your wife".

Using a VPN will hide the content but not the source and destination so they will still see you visiting www.Jihadies4You.com or sending an email to [email protected]

Even if you are jumping onto a Tor node the fact that you are doing that will still be logged. Same with going via a Proxy, that will be recorded and if the proxy is keeping logs they can go get those as well or get the ISP the proxy is on to give them the info on whats leaving the proxy.

Changing your IP won't help, DHCP records at the ISP will still link you to the ones you use if it's dynamic, or DNS records if you change it manually. It's all backed up so they can trawl through it if needs be.

As ever, the proposals are "For our own safety" and "in the interests of national security" but will doubtless come in very handy when the next "threat" is identified. Especially if it happens to be a civil liberties group, investigative journalists or anyone who disagrees with the government of the day.

I wonder if looking at sites like ZH (critical of most govts du jour), YT videos not in line with 'received wisdom', etc. will be a red flag. Who knows, even browsing CUK could be one.

The only positive is that they're so badly resourced at present that they don't have the time to sift through the browsing histories of all and sundry who disapprove of a given govt and its policies, but the potential for abuse is what bothers me.