The Government’s mass surveillance programme to collect people's internet activity and phone records has been ruled unlawful by the Court of Appeal. Judges said the Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Act (Dripa) 2014 breached EU law as it allowed the data to be harvested for reasons other than fighting serious crime. It also enabled police and public bodies to authorise their own access, avoiding prior authorisation by a court or independent body.
Dripa has since been replaced by the Investigatory Powers Act 2016 – dubbed the “snooper’s charter” – which campaigners said would have to be changed in the wake of today’s ruling. Many of the powers that feature in Dripa and were criticised in the case were replicated and even expanded in the new legislation.
The two central findings from the Court of Appeal – that Dripa was being used to collect data for the wrong purposes, and without proper sign-off – still exist in the current legislation. That means that the existing legal framework for the UK to spy on its citizens is "effectively unlawful", Liberty claimed.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/uk-surveillance-digital-gchq-snooping-charter-court-unlawful-intelligence-security-services-a8185176.html
Relevant:
ReplyDeleteindependent.co.uk - The only law the Government aren’t copying and pasting from the EU is the one that protects your human rights
yeah, that’s why we need Brexit. To reduce oversight.
ReplyDeleteWhenever I spend time looking at the history of law enforcement and governmental power I am amazed at just how recently our legal system grew into the shining beacon of civil society we imagine it to be - policing from the 50s or 60s looks like organized corruption and privilege withathin veneer of politeness. And then the closer you look, the more tenuous the mirage of civil law and order becomes, the more it feels like adesperate fight to keep citizens safe from unscrupulous men who act with impunity.
Leave or Remain, no one voted for a less free, less fair UK.
ReplyDeleteOh, I don't know, the freedom bit is probably true but with an important qualifier that derails the fairness bit. Don't forget, Farage said he wanted to remove the laws against racial discrimination in the workplace. He wants more freedom to and less freedom from. He doesn't want fairness. He wants to be as unfair as possible because he wants privilege. That's what Brexiteers love, not fairness.
With the usual and important stipulation that Brexiteer <> Brexit voter.
No ruling on fighting frivolous crime?
ReplyDelete