The latest version of the Investigatory Powers Bill, or so-called snoopers' charter, extends the powers of police and public authorities to access people's internet history and to hack into their phones.
Under the updated bill, law enforcement bodies will be able to access people’s internet history - stored for a year - "for the purposes of preventing or detecting crime" and for "assessing or collecting any tax", without a warrant.
Public authorities including HMRC, the Department for Work and Pensions and the Health and Safety Executive will also be able to access this communications data.
Law enforcement agencies will also be given more powers to hack into people’s phones, known as equipment interference.
In addition to detecting crime, equipment interference may also be used by law enforcement for "threat to life" situations.
All police forces will be permitted to use equipment interference. Some public authorities - including British Transport Police and the Competitions and Market Authority - will keep their powers to hack phones.
This equipment interference must be a warrant signed by a law enforcement chief and a judicial commissioner.
The bill could also require companies like Apple to decrypt users’ private data. Companies could be asked to remove the encryption they provide if it is "practicable" to do so, despite the government saying it is "not asking companies to weaken their security by undermining encryption".
An executive at a large technology company told Sky News that this definition was "a sleight of hand by the Government. The uncertainty around encryption remains".
The updated bill introduces more privacy safeguards, increasing protections for lawyers and requiring judicial permission to identify a journalist’s source.
The bill is also accompanied by a new operational case for bulk powers, setting out why the government believes security and intelligence agencies require existing powers to monitor data on a huge scale.
It contains unprecedented detail about their work, including on bulk equipment interference.
According to one example in the document, GCHQ could use bulk equipment interference to penetrate entire "software packages", used by innocent members of the public, as well as terrorists. In another example, intelligence agencies might hack into all the devices in "a major town".
Bulk equipment interference must be authorised by a warrant and can only be used against overseas targets.
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