What a sensationalist title, I was expecting a comparison with other surveillance law in others countries and the result to be something outrageous. Turns out it's just sensationalism and it ends up being the kind of surveillance that has been enacted around the world in the last few years, mandatory ISP data retention has been active for 10 years in France[1].

It was even a European directive, directive 2006/24/EC or data retention directive[2], for all members of the European Union from 2006 to 2014 when it was invalidated through the Court of Justice of European Union. Interestingly this directive came into existence while the Uk had the presidency of EU in 2005. >According to the directive, member states will have to store citizens' telecommunications data for a minimum of 6 months and at most 24 months.

Why is zdnet trying to put this UK law as if it was something out of the ordinary ? Switzerland[3], Canada's bill C-51[4], Germany[5], Australia[6], Italy[7], and more [8] (Estonia, Greece, Spain, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Portugal, Ireland) all have mandatory data retention law.

Then again none of those are actual democracies (the closest being switzerland) and that's pretty much the reason these laws made to spy on citizens are possible.

[1]:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_on_the_fight_against_terro... [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Retention_Directive [3]: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-37465853 [4]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-terrorism_Act,_2015 [5]: https://www.huntonprivacyblog.com/2015/10/16/german-parliame... [6]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telecommunications_(Intercepti... [7]: https://edri.org/edrigramnumber3-16italy/ [8]: https://www.purevpn.com/blog/data-retention-laws-by-countrie...