Spy agencies illegally stored massive amounts of data about ordinary citizens in the UK for 17 years, the Investigatory Powers Tribunal ruled this week.
MI5, MI6 and GCHQ tracked individual phone and internet use, medical and tax records, financial activities and other confidential personal information without adequate safeguards or supervision illegally between 1998 and 2015, the tribunal found in Privacy International v Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs & Ors IPT/15/110/CH. It held the agencies breached Art 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
However, mass digital surveillance is likely to be made lawful by the Investigatory Powers Bill (the “Snooper’s Charter”). An attempt by Liberal Democrat Peers to delete clauses giving powers to collect and store internet connection records was defeated in the House of Lords this week. The Bill compels technology firms to store internet metadata for 12 months, and makes lawful the mass collection and storage of bulk personal datasets and communications date from phonecalls and text messages.
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