Majority of Britons think the state should have more surveillance powers

Over half of British people support an increase in powers for the intelligence services.

A YouGov poll, commissioned by the Sunday Times, asked Britons if they think phone and internet providers should be required to retain everyone's data.

This data includes internet browsing history, emails, voice calls, social media interactions and text messages and would be available to police and intelligence agencies.

As well as the specific question on whether companies should keep data for 12 months, YouGov also asked respondents whether they generally agreed with the statement: "Generally speaking, do you think the security services do or do not need more access to the public's communications in order to effectively fight terrorism?" Fifty-two per cent agreed, 31 per cent disagreed and 17 per cent said they did not know.

In light of the Charlie Hebdo attacks David Cameron proposed a new snoopers' charter in order to close the "safe spaces" that terrorists use to communicate with each other online. His new charter would allow companies to keep records of interactions - i.e. who called who - but not the content of the messages.

For an alternative view on state surveillance, you can watch this Ted talk by American journalist Glenn Greenwald who first reported on the NSA files leaked by Edward Snowden:

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