UK: Surveillance Devices to Monitor Web Traffic

British intelligence agencies are planning to install an unspecified number of spy devices along Britain’s telecommunications network so they can monitor Britons’ interactions with overseas services such as Facebook and Twitter, according to lawmakers.

The devices are intended as a lynchpin of a nationwide surveillance plan intended to log nearly everything Britons do online – from Skype calls to instant messages to visits to pornographic websites.

Some new details have been unveiled in a parliamentary report published Tuesday.

The report says the devices would rely on “Deep Packet Inspection,” so-called because it allows those intercepting the data to comb through its content.

Authorities say the government aims to gather information about the data’s sender, its recipients, and time and location information associated with both.