Theresa May defends email surveillance as necessary

Home Secretary says enabling security services to monitor our web communications is vital to catch criminals but is it just another invasion of our civil liberties?

The Home Secretary is defending government plans to enable security services to monitor the public's email, telephone calls and social media communications.

Theresa May says increasing the powers of security services is vital to catch paedophiles, terrorists and other criminals who use the web to lure their victims.

But privacy campaigners, internet companies and politicians have heavily criticised the proposals which will monitor emails and social media used by the British public.

Downing Street insists only data including times, dates, names and addresses will be monitored, not the content of communications.

'Such data has been used in every security service terrorism investigation and 95 per cent of serious organised crime investigations over the last 10 years,' says the Home Secretary as she insists ordinary people have nothing to fear.

'No one is going to be looking through ordinary people's emails and Facebook posts,' she says. 'Only suspected terrorists, paedophiles or serious criminals will be investigated.'

The security minister James Brokenshire says the emphasis is on solving crime rather than snooping, but Nick Pickles, from the Big Brother Watch campaign group, says: 'No amount of scaremongering can hide the fact that this policy is being condemned.'

'The government has offered no justification for what is unprecedented intrusion into our lives, nor explained why promises made about civil liberties are being casually junked.'

Is web surveillance a necessary move to stay one step ahead of criminals or is it a categorical invasion of our privacy? Let Marie Claire know your thoughts by posting a comment below...

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