UK police are now asking the government to allow them to spy on the Internet search history of just about anyone in the country.

Richard Berry, the National Police Chief’s Council spokesman, said, “We want to police by consent, and we want to ensure that privacy safeguards are in place. But we need to balance this with the needs of the vulnerable and the victims. We essentially need the ‘who, where, when and what’ of any communication – who initiated it, where were they and when did it happened. And a little bit of the ‘what’, were they on Facebook, or a banking site, or an illegal child-abuse image-sharing website?”

Police have long been pushing for the legalization of their spying programs, but they have been turned down on multiple occasions in the past. Though it’s highly likely that authorities have already been looking at citizens’ online activities, they want legal permission to do so.

The question is — are we ready for a new era of mass legalized surveillance?

Source:

ActivistPost.com