It is my sincerest wish that every parent in the land look their children in the eyes tonight as they put them to bed and say "I will ensure that your private activity and communication from now onwards will be logged for the rest of your life, at risk from the actions of government and hackers and freely shared with foreign governments" and decide if they are OK with that.

The Investigatory Powers Bill is the most extreme surveillance law passed in a democracy and perhaps in certain authoritarian regimes too.

It sets a dangerous precedent:

Our children from now on will have their online activities and communications tracked for the rest of their lives. These powers open up the possibility of terrible abuses. It cannot be guaranteed that the authorities in the future will always be working purely in our best interests. With the wrong sort of motivation this kind of logging of data and intrusion into our privacy could be used against us as a method of control and oppression. I never want to have to explain to my children or grandchildren that I stood by and allowed the tools of their oppression to be created and did not stand against it.

It is actually unworkable:

As individual citizens we can take steps to make this unworkable by using Virtual Private Networks, Tor browsers and encrypted messaging apps. Terrorists are aware of this, paedophiles are aware of this. So, if the people it purports to catch and people with basic technical skills know how to get around it, who's best interest is this working for?

Hacking:

This collection of data presents a massive temptation for hackers. The security of the mass of data collected is at risk from hacking by individuals, groups and foreign governments. This creates the possibility of that data being used or amended. Blackmail is high on the list of dangerous opportunities afforded to hackers.

Terrorism:

Our security services are doing a brilliant job of keeping terrorism out of the UK with the tools they currently have. A simple comparison of effectiveness shows that the IRA were significantly more effective in the UK than ISIS have ever been, but media hysteria does not point this out. The security services combined with the good sense of the British people and campaigns by British Muslims such as #NotInMyName work to combat this threat effectively. We do not need these powers on the off chance they will afford us an edge in a battle we are already winning.

Nothing to hide:

If you believe that everything is OK if you have nothing to hide you are missing the point that your records could be altered by hackers or unethical governments for entirely their own purposes.

Foreign Governments:

Under free flow of data laws your personal information can be made available to certain foreign governments.