UK to Demand Record of Every Call, Text, Email

The UK government is working on an anti-terror plan that would require service providers to record and store details on every call, text, email, or even Twitter direct message sent by anyone in the country—along with all their complete browsing history. Companies would then keep that info on file for a year, allowing the government "real time" access to it whenever necessary. The Home Office is currently negotiating the deal with Internet companies, and could announce it as soon as May, the Telegraph reports.

The actual content of conversations wouldn't be recorded, only the recipients, dates, and times, but that's more than enough to have civil liberties advocates outraged. "It would be the end of privacy online," one advocate tells the Daily Mail, adding that "the data would be a honey pot for hackers and foreign governments." The UK's previous, Labour-led government had proposed a similar plan, but scrapped it amid public outrage. (More privacy stories.)