The British government plans to make ISPs keep records of customers' Web histories and help spies hack into computers and phones under a new cyber-snooping law. According to the draft Investigatory Powers Bill, the internet activity of everyone in Britain will have to be stored for a year by service providers.
If approved by British Parliament, the bill will let police and spies access Internet connection records.

The draft bill also contains proposals covering how the state can hack devices and run operations to sweep up large amounts of data as it flows through the internet, enshrining in law the previously covert activities of GCHQ, as uncovered by whistleblower Edward Snowden.

The bill gives explicit legal blessing to intelligence agencies to intercept communications. It allows for "equipment interference" - scooping data straight from computers and smartphones - as a crime-fighting tool, and says service providers will be legally obliged to assist authorities in getting access to customers' devices.

It also allows spy agencies to engage in bulk collection of data "in the interests of national security."

Under the proposals, a team of judges will form a new Investigatory Powers Commission, which the Home Office says will provide oversight of how police, MI5 and others intercept and gather data.

In urgent situations, the home secretary would have the power to approve an interception warrant without immediate judicial approval.