Investigation Into Illegal Spying On Kim Doctom Reveals NZ Intelligence Illegally Spied On 85 People

from the oops dept

Tue, Apr 9th 2013 2:56pm — Mike Masnick

Remember how the New Zealand intelligence organization GCSB (Government Communications Security Bureau) had to admit that it had illegally spied on Kim Dotcom? That kicked off an investigation that has now revealed that the GCSB illegally spied on somewhere around 85 people.

GCSB director Ian Fletcher said in February that his agency did not illegally spy on anyone else on behalf of law enforcement agencies.

But the Kitteridge report contradicts this - questioning the lawfulness of GCSB surveillance involving 85 New Zealanders. The agency is forbidden from spying on anyone with citizenship or permanent residence here.

The illegal spying was conducted between April 2003 and September last year and done on behalf of the Security Intelligence Service, the domestic spy agency.

But wait... there's more. The report also found that it's likely GCSB violated other laws as well, including the Privacy Act and the Defence Act. Not surprisingly, the report also finds a mess of an agency with terrible management, poor record-keeping and little oversight. Shocking, isn't it, that such conditions would lead to abuse of power and illegal surveillance, huh?

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: gcsb, kim dotcom, new zealand, spying, surveillance

19 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

rw (profile), 9 Apr 2013 @ 2:02pm

Are you sure this wasn't in the US?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 9 Apr 2013 @ 3:08pm

Re:
Yes, that's a completely different bunch of alphabet-soup agencies.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Alana (profile), 9 Apr 2013 @ 3:13pm

Re:
Take the number, multiply it by 100,000 roughly, and you have the US.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
el_segfaulto (profile), 9 Apr 2013 @ 3:13pm

Why All The Hate?
Oh Mike. Laws, due process, and individual rights are for those who hate freedom. You don't hate freedom...do you?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 9 Apr 2013 @ 3:23pm

It's OK for governments to break good laws, in the name of protecting corporate profits. But when citizens harmlessly break bad or victimless laws (ie: IP laws), laws designed to protect corporate profits, then the govt will be all over you.

IP laws are not that important. Laws protecting citizens from oppressive government are far more important. Yet the penalty structure built into our laws, and how penalties are applied, are completely backward.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 9 Apr 2013 @ 3:24pm

Re:
backwards *
[ link to this | view in thread ]
David Swanson, 9 Apr 2013 @ 3:27pm

The way to do it
Poor NZ.
In Australia, we'd just get the military to do it under the Defence power in our constitution.
As long as it's for a Defence purpose, legally they can spy on anyone they want, any time they want, anywhere they want, any way they want.
It's a very helpful loophole we use all the time.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 9 Apr 2013 @ 3:44pm

Re:
In the US, you wouldn't know about until it was too late to prosecute and the perpetrators had obtained cushy outside jobs.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Divide by Zero (profile), 9 Apr 2013 @ 3:56pm

And their solution? To change the law to allow the GCSB to spy on citizens. This government is completely out of control and seem to be taking their instructions from their american overlords like good little lapdogs.

At least we can thank Kim Dotcom for being the reason this all came to light. Maybe now we can do something about it.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Fentex, 9 Apr 2013 @ 5:59pm

In Australia, we'd just get the military to do it under the Defence power in our constitution

That is the likely outcome of this review. The government will just conclude, as their mouth pieces are currently arguing, that the GCSB is our eavesdropping tool so ought be allowed to assist others in doing their eavesdropping.

What happened was there was a law change that made it clear GCSB should not spy on NZ citizens in it's capacity as our signals intelligence service.

GCSB ignored that when requested to help other agencies that are allowed to do it because they think that's also their job - to wear a different hat and provide such abilities to others, and they didn't think themselves responsible when asked by other agencies to do the eavesdropping.

There's also a lot of uncovered lax behaviour that's typical of spooks that have no effective over-sight due to their secrecy.

What'll happen is the government will swear it's all cleaned up, pass legislation allowing GCSB to provide eavesdropping capabilities to over agencies and business will proceed as usual.

What they won't, but should do, is instigate real effective accountability.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
bigpicture, 9 Apr 2013 @ 6:03pm

Re: Re: Grammar Nazi
Backward, as in retarded. Grammar Nazi!!! Not backwards as in reversed!!!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 9 Apr 2013 @ 7:13pm

Re: Re: Re: Grammar Nazi
Thanks ;)
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Corrupt NZ government, 9 Apr 2013 @ 9:30pm

Corrupt NZ government
If the NZ government doesn't go after those who broke its laws on spying and prosecute them, they have no right passing any laws. Something tells me nothing will be done; meanwhile if you or I did the same thing, we'd be in prison. Sounds like a corrupt NZ government, including their Attorney General.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 10 Apr 2013 @ 1:42am

' Shocking, isn't it, that such conditions would lead to abuse of power and illegal surveillance, huh?'

cant imagine who else is in mind.

what this shows more than anything is that governments and law enforcement agencies think they have the right to do whatever they please, whenever they please, against whomsoever they please and will not get called out for that behaviour, let alone anything else. they have the opinion that they are answerable to no one and the people do not matter. every country in the so-called democratic world is within a whisker of being a Police State that it is absolutely terrifying! the power that corporations and industries have over governments is equally as terrifying if not even more so!!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 10 Apr 2013 @ 2:52am

Re: Why All The Hate?
I do...for the government.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Ninja (profile), 10 Apr 2013 @ 4:24am

It's amusing that by trying to destroy Dotcom they got a lot of dirt revolved and scrutinized and are looking much worse than the evil racketeer child molester Dotcom they tried to paint to the public.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
DannyB (profile), 10 Apr 2013 @ 5:54am

Re: The way to do it
Hey now, we have the Patriot act, see? So we're catching up. It's not our fault that Australia didn't patent it first.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Bryan (profile), 10 Apr 2013 @ 8:55am

Re: The way to do it
Warrantless spying by the government that violates an individual's security. You really consider that a benefit? I hope you have no skeletons in your closet.

Bryan
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 10 Apr 2013 @ 10:47pm

Re: Re: The way to do it
your sarcasm detector is broken
[ link to this | view in thread ]