The UK government has published a draft document outlining how it wants to spy on digital communications.
The 299-page Investigatory Powers Bill was unveiled by Home Office Minister Theresa May at the Houses of Parliament in London today.
The proposed new legislation concerns, among other things, the interception of people's electronic communications, or, as the government puts it, "the ability of intelligence agencies and law enforcement to target online communications of terrorists, paedophiles and other serious criminals."
Speaking to the House of Commons, May said that the government will not ban end-to-end encryption, as Business Insider reported earlier today.
May said the bill will "provide some of the strongest protections and safeguards anywhere in the democratic world and an approach that sets new standards for openness, transparency and oversight."
Police and intelligence agencies will have to get permission to see the content and councils will be banned from viewing the records.
After permission is granted, the police will be able to see which websites an individual has visited but they won't be able to see each of the pages the investigated person looked at, or what they searched for while on that website.
For example, police could see that someone visited www.businessinsider.com but they wouldn't be able to determine which stories they looked at.
A team of judges will form the new Investigatory Powers Commission, which will be able to block spying operations even after they've been authorised by the Home Secretary. In urgent scenarios, when lives are in danger, the Home Secretary will be able to grant an interception warrant without judicial approval.
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