Snowden making news again

[pineapplemike]

GCHQ data collection regime violated human rights, court rules
Surveillance system revealed by Snowden breached right to privacy, Strasbourg judges say
https://amp.theguardian.com/uk-news/201 ... ourt-rules

GCHQ’s methods in carrying out bulk interception of online communications violated privacy and failed to provide sufficient surveillance safeguards, the European court of human rights (ECHR) has ruled in a test case judgment.

But the Strasbourg court found that GCHQ’s regime for sharing sensitive digital intelligence with foreign governments was not illegal.

It is the first major challenge to the legality of UK intelligence agencies intercepting private communications in bulk, following Edward Snowden’s whistleblowing revelations.

The long-awaited ruling is one of the most comprehensive assessments by the ECHR of the legality of the interception operations operated by UK intelligence agencies.

The claims, which had already been heard by the UK’s investigatory powers tribunal, were brought by a coalition of 14 human rights groups, privacy organisations and journalists, including Amnesty International, Liberty, Privacy International and Big Brother Watch.

By a majority of five to two votes, the Strasbourg judges found that GCHQ’s bulk interception regime violated article 8 of the European convention on human rights, which guarantees privacy, because there were said to be insufficient safeguards, and rules governing the selection of “related communications data” were deemed to be inadequate.

The legal challenge was triggered by revelations made by Snowden in 2013, which showed GCHQ, was secretly intercepting, processing and storing data about millions of people’s private communications, even when those people were of no intelligence interest. In one of the operations, called Tempora, the eavesdropping agency tapped into cables and communication networks to obtain huge volumes of internet data.

“The United Kingdom authorities have neither confirmed nor denied the existence of … Tempora,” the ECHR judgment notes.

[SuburbanFarmer]

5 years in the making... That kid is a legitimate hero, even if it has no real effect on the IC.