Britain Seeks Greater Access to Citizens' Online Activity

The British government plans to make telecommunication firms keep records of every website that customers visit under a new law regulating cyber-snooping.

The draft Investigatory Powers Bill is designed to regulate authorities' access to Internet activity, replacing a patchwork of laws, some dating from the Web's infancy.

Home Secretary Theresa May said Wednesday that the bill would let police and spies access Internet connection records - a list of websites and social media apps someone has visited, though not the individual pages they looked at or messages they sent.

May said the data was "simply the modern equivalent of an itemized phone bill," but civil liberties groups say it marks a big expansion of snooping powers.

The bill will be reviewed by legislators before it's submitted to Parliament for approval.