The Investigatory Powers Bill has passed both houses of parliament in the United Kingdom and is expected to become law before the end of 2016.
This is bad news for British authors of mysteries, thrillers, and suspense novels if they use the web to conduct research.
Under the IP Bill, security services and police forces will be able to access communications data when it is needed to help their investigations. This means internet history data (Internet Connection Records, in official speak) will have to be stored for 12 months.
Communications service providers, which include everything from internet companies and messenger services to postal services, will have to store meta data about the communications made through their services.
In Britain, every website you visit as you research the plot for your next thriller will be logged by your ISP, specifically so the data will be available to law enforcement. If you want to get the details of your murder and mayhem right without raising suspicion among the authorities, you really need the proxy feature of startpage.com.
Better yet, get started with Tor if you haven’t already.
Novel Dog 