The UK government is currently trying to rush the so-called "Investigatory Powers Bill" [1] through parliament (the bill has its second reading today — 15 March 2016). The bill gives the police, intelligence services and various government agencies wide-ranging powers to collect the internet activity of everybody in the country, hack innocent people's devices in bulk, compel companies to hack their own customers [2], and collect intrusive databases of personal data on innocent people.
It is doubtful whether these powers would make us any safer [3]; but they would make the UK a police state, with a regime of mass surveillance on par with Russia or China. As one MP put it: “Because for the past 200 years we haven’t had a Stasi or a Gestapo, we are intellectually lazy about it [4].” 200 senior lawyers and barristers have called the bill “unfit for purpose” and “maybe illegal” [5]. The current Apple vs. FBI case in th