The bill increases the powers of the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) by giving it the right to spy on residents and citizens. The law was deemed necessary after GCSB was discovered to have been spying illegally on the internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom. The spying led to a raid on his house. After that, it was discovered that many other people had been spied on as well. 

Law Society protests

The Law Society was one of many groups to protest against the new rules which were only just passed by a majority of 61 to 59 in parliament. Facebook, according to Yahoo! News, said in a submission to parliament: 'Blanket rules requiring data retention and accessibility are blunt tools which have the potential to infringe on civil liberties and constrain economic growth.'