Collecting the data | ||
| The Investigatory Powers Act of 2016 requires ISPs to keep a record of all web sites visited by their clients for 12 months. The Government calculated that this would cost them £175m, though ISPs said this was an under-estimate. | ||
| Given that click tax is a method of getting the ISPs to collect money from the giants, it might be acceptable to let them pass on the costs of collecting the data to the internet companies. | ||
| This might make the ISPs less resistant to introducing click tax. Some may even welcome it. The data collected by ISPs is probably sufficient to base click tax on, but UK internet users might be able to avoid having their traffic monitored by using an encrypted service or a foreign ISP. Both these options involve some technical knowledge and cost. Since click tax is not levied on the consumer, it's unlikely that many will attempt to avoid it. However, it might make sense to have a separate tax on VPN (Virtual Personal Network) providers (perhaps £30 or so per customer). | ||
| It is possible that a future Labour government may change or even repeal the Investigatory Powers Act. The Act is seen as a way of legalising the surveillance regime revealed by Edward Snowden. It might, however, be possible to require the ISPs to continue to collect the data in an anonymised form (with names of all clients redacted) even if the Investigatory Powers Act was largely discarded. | Click to see next page. | |
| Click below to see an item or return to index. | ||
| <1> Using clicks to create a fairer tax world | ||
| <2> Net Neutrality | ||
| <3> Collecting the data | ||
| <4> Saving the high street? | ||
| <5> Gambling | ||
| <6> The size of it | ||
| Return to index | ||