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LONDON—A sweeping British surveillance bill passed into law Tuesday, in an overhaul of spying powers that will require communications companies to keep records of every website and messaging services that individuals have accessed for a year.

Security officials welcomed the development, saying the government needs expanded powers to keep pace with changes in technology as terrorist groups become increasingly tech-savvy. But civil liberties groups and technology companies said the new powers go too far. The bill received royal assent—the final step in the process of becoming a law—after passing through Parliament.

The law comes as technology companies in Silicon Valley lock horns with governments in the U.K. and the U.S. over where to draw the line between user privacy and national security.

Last week, French prosecutors said the country's recently enhanced surveillance powers, which came into effect this summer, had allowed them to foil a planned terror attack by Islamic State. The U.K. government Tuesday said its law will ensure that security and intelligence agencies have the powers they need.

"The internet presents new opportunities for terrorists and we must ensure we have the capabilities to confront this challenge," Home Secretary Amber Rudd said. "But it is also right that these powers are subject to strict safeguards and rigorous oversight."

The new law, which will be phased in, grants authorities the right to see information about which websites individuals have accessed, including apps or social media accessed through a smartphone. It also spells out explicitly for the first time the rules that govern authorities' powers to hack computers to gain access to communications.

Civil liberties groups said the law paves the way for mass surveillance without sufficient oversight.

"It's a sad day for our democracy as this bill—with its eye wateringly intrusive powers and flimsy safeguards—becomes law," said Bella Sankey, policy director for Liberty, a civil rights group. She said the law opens "every detail of every citizen's online life up to state eyes, drowning the authorities in data and putting innocent people's personal information at massive risk."

Intelligence officials say the new law codifies how capabilities they have used for years are properly used. While the U.K.'s spy agencies carry out data collection and analysis with strict internal oversight, the new law lays out for the first time how the techniques can be limited.

Intelligence officials say the way they use data is often misrepresented. "We aren't actually interested in people's various peccadilloes," said one security official. Instead, the value of data lies less in randomly collected information than in the ability of intelligence agencies to use data sets to identify or track down suspects.

Google Inc. and Facebook Inc. have criticized the legislation in the past and said collecting data in bulk is overzealous. Apple Inc. earlier this year said complying with the proposals would weaken the strength of encryption in the products, making it easier for criminals and terrorists to steal data.

John Shaw, vice president of product management at internet security firm Sophos Group PLC, said Tuesday he was concerned that storing personal data for a year gives cybercriminals more opportunity to steal it.

"The requirement is in theory for them to keep details of the pages we visit and other 'communications data,' but not the 'content' of those pages—although any technologist will tell you that the distinction between the two is becoming increasingly blurred," Mr. Shaw said. "Either way they will hold a vast amount of sensitive data about all us—business and personal—like who you bank with, who your energy provider is, what email service you use, who you send emails to and how often, and so on."

Stu Woo contributed to this article.

Write to Jenny Gross at jenny.gross@wsj.com and Alexis Flynn at alexis.flynn@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 30, 2016 01:55 ET (06:55 GMT)

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