Court Won't Let Government Screw Forfeiture Victim Out Of Legal Fees

UK Surveillance Oversight Board Says It's All Cool When GCHQ Hacks Basically Anyone

from the hack-away,-snoops dept

Fri, Feb 12th 2016 7:39pm — Mike Masnick

This isn't a huge surprise, but the UK's Investigatory Powers Tribunal -- which is a sort of extremely weak "oversight" board, charged with making sure that the GCHQ isn't violating the law, but with no real powers over GCHQ and a history of supporting its spying, has now said that the GCHQ's hacking of computers, networks and phones is perfectly fine.

This was in response to a challenge mounted by Privacy International. The IPT was not too concerned about GCHQ spying, and even said that it's fine even without naming specific targets:

Ruling says GCHQ hacking warrants need not name specific individuals - means OK to hack entire orgs/govts/companies: pic.twitter.com/HByqNOVq1l
— Ryan Gallagher (@rj_gallagher) February 12, 2016

As Privacy International has said in response, this appears to completely wipe out the idea that "general warrants" (i.e., not against named individuals/targets) are (and have been) unlawful:

“The IPT has decided that GCHQ can use ‘thematic warrants’, which means GCHQ can hack an entire class of property or persons, such as ‘all phones in Birmingham’.

“In doing so, it has upended a longstanding English common law principle that such general warrants are unlawful. Allowing governments to hack places the security and stability of the internet and the information we exchange on it at stake.”

This is an unfortunate decision, if not that surprising. But yet another reminder that perhaps the UK is a dangerous place for technology firms to do business these days.

Privacy-Greennet-and-Sec-of-State (PDF)Privacy-Greennet-and-Sec-of-State (Text)

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: gchq, general warrants, hacking, investigatory powers tribunal, ipt, mass surveillance, spying, surveillance, uk

17 Comments

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

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

Anonymous Coward, 12 Feb 2016 @ 8:06pm

Birmingham
‘all phones in Birmingham’
Birmingham, Alabama? or Birmingham, Ohio?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Richard (profile), 13 Feb 2016 @ 2:39am

Re: Birmingham
All phones in all Birminghams.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Richard (profile), 13 Feb 2016 @ 2:51am

Just the UK?
This is an unfortunate decision, if not that surprising. But yet another reminder that perhaps the UK is a dangerous place for technology firms to do business these days.

How Naive!

Given the "Five Eyes" system, everything that can happen in ANY of US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand can also happen in ALL of those places. Each of them has a different local profile of abuse but the overall effect is that the union of all the abuses can happen in the union of all the places.

So where else you gonna go?

Continental Europe?

Well there you've got all of the above - plus "right to be forgotten" and even more abusive collection societies (eg GEMA).

OK lets go to a small independent country - well any such country is at the mercy of US bullying so no joy there.

That just leaves China, Russia, India, maybe one or two of the larger S. American countries, Africa and the Islamic world. All of these have their own problems that have been well documented on this site. OK lets try outer space - well there was that "Space Oddity" incident on the ISS.

So - seriously - where ARE you going to go.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
That One Guy (profile), 13 Feb 2016 @ 3:12am

Next up: REALLY general warrants
'We want to hack someone at some point.'
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 13 Feb 2016 @ 3:53am

Re: Re: Birmingham
All your Birminghams are belong to us.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 13 Feb 2016 @ 4:21am

Australia brought in similar laws last year. The language is so vague that a single warrant can arguably be issued to cover hacking the entire internet.

Of course, the "warrant" is only signed by one of the politicians that wrote the law in the first place, so it is basically meaningless.

They also wrote law that said spies are immune to prosecution.

What is the opposite of "enlightenment"?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
rw (profile), 13 Feb 2016 @ 7:43am

Just another sign of another government out of control. When are we people going to quit creating these damn monsters.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 13 Feb 2016 @ 8:08am

another government that has decided to let itself fall by choosing to make the rules not apply to itself anymore.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 13 Feb 2016 @ 11:04am

Aren't all these spy organisations set up to keep the status quo anyways. If change is happening they will start wars, fabricate coups, assassinate people and this means access to as much information as possible to make it as easy as possible. The public loves it even if it hurts them because hey terrorism and kiddyporn is the perfect excuse to use for the general 'dumb' public who does not have a clue how easily this information can be used against them. But hey Hollywood can make some more movies/shows about this so that's good I guess. Kappa.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 13 Feb 2016 @ 1:18pm

Do as we say, not as we do.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Mark Wing, 13 Feb 2016 @ 3:34pm

Malware like Flame and Stuxnet are being created by the US government, released (or escaping) into the wild, and yet the CFAA doesn't mean anything if you say "but, terrorism" first. But download a bunch of public domain files and you'll have the FBI on your ass, threatening you with decades in prison.

Please tell me how any of the laws regarding technology and content mean shit? The entire free world's technology policy is a fucking joke, and breaking the law is just code for pissing the wrong people off.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Jeffrey Brooman, 13 Feb 2016 @ 7:01pm

Re: Just the UK?
fuckin eh, brother
[ link to this | view in thread ]
uha, 14 Feb 2016 @ 6:42am

but
i see you with that naked underage hooker again mister politician....now about that policy we were discussng.....
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Isma'il, 14 Feb 2016 @ 10:31am

Re:
Since when has any government followed its own rules?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Bergman (profile), 15 Feb 2016 @ 2:10am

Re:
Hey, the British government has a history of general warrants. Those were one of the main reasons that they lost 13 colonies in North America about 240 years ago.

Wouldn't it be hilarious if the last of their 'sortof-part-of-us-but-not' possessions like Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland slipped away from them over them taking up the practice again?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Bergman (profile), 15 Feb 2016 @ 2:12am

Re: Re:
Theocracies tend to more than most, but even they get corrupt with time. About the only time I can think of where any government actually followed its own rules was literally Biblical.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 15 Feb 2016 @ 3:22am

Re: Birmingham
Birmingham, West Midlands, UK would be a likely candidate, but yes they do have even more leeway to listen in abroad than at home so just assume any and every Birmingham.
[ link to this | view in thread ]