UK Appeals Court Says GCHQ's Mass Collection Of Internet Communications Is Illegal

from the of-course,-when-you're-the-government,-you-just-have-the-laws-changed dept

The UK's mass surveillance programs haven't been treated kindly by the passing years (2013-onward). Ever since Snowden began dumping details on GCHQ surveillance, legal challenges to the lawfulness of UK bulk surveillance have been flying into courtrooms. More amazingly, they've been coming out the other side victorious.

In 2015, a UK tribunal ruled GCHQ had conducted illegal surveillance and ordered it to destroy intercepted communications between detainees and their legal reps. In 2016, the UK tribunal declared GCHQ's bulk collection of communications metadata illegal. However, the tribunal did not order destruction of this collection, meaning GCHQ is likely still making use of illegally-collected metadata.

A second loss in 2016 -- this time at the hands of the EU Court of Justice -- found GCHQ's collection of European communications being declared illegal due to the "indiscriminate" (untargeted) nature of the collection process. The UK government appealed this decision, taking the ball back to its home court. And, again, it has been denied a victory.

The court of appeal ruling on Tuesday said the powers in the Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Act 2014, which paved the way for the snooper’s charter legislation, did not restrict the accessing of confidential personal phone and web browsing records to investigations of serious crime, and allowed police and other public bodies to authorise their own access without adequate oversight.

The three judges said Dripa was “inconsistent with EU law” because of this lack of safeguards, including the absence of “prior review by a court or independent administrative authority”.

Hey, the elimination of privacy safeguards is just the price that has to be paid when the nation's security can only be guaranteed by rushed, liberty-violating legislation dropped onto the floor shortly before closing time. If power is going to be consolidated, it needs to be done with a little debate as possible. Built-in safeguards for citizens' privacy is something that can be relegated to an afterthought. And that afterthought need never be brought up again.

Those powers - granted by DRIPA -- have been declared illegal. That's going to cause problems for the Snooper's Charter, which is DRIPA's surveillance state successor. Chances are the problem will be dealt with by erecting a few minimal privacy protections while codifying prior surveillance abuses. And since this only upholds an EU court decision, it will mean less than nothing once Britain completes its exit from the Union.

The good news is the court's decision backs up what critics have been saying for years: bulk interception of communications violates UK law, and the supposed oversight these collections receive falls far short of what's required to make the collections legal again.

Hide this

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: cjeu, dripa, gchq, mass surveillance, privacy, surveillance, uk


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  • identicon
    Yes, I know I'm commenting anonymously, 31 Jan 2018 @ 3:50am

    UK court sides with EU court:
    Unfortunately, this gives the government more reason to push through with the disastrous Brexit.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 31 Jan 2018 @ 7:34am

      Re:

      Brexit might not help, for a while: "To provide legal continuity, it will also transpose directly-applicable already-existing EU law into UK law, and so 'create a new category of domestic law for the United Kingdom: retained EU law'." from wikipedia

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    DONT BE STUPID BE EDUCATED, 31 Jan 2018 @ 4:38am

    ummm

    @ above

    really ....that has zero to do with any thing...in fact if they leave and continue ....its an act of war

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Lord Lidl of Cheem (profile), 31 Jan 2018 @ 7:30am

    Who goes to jail when the government breaks the law?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 31 Jan 2018 @ 10:18am

    So?

    Court: That's illegal.
    GCHQ: Oh yeah? So what'cha gonna do about it?

    link to this | view in chronology ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.