EuropeHuman Rights

HRW slams UK government surveillance law

371363_UK-GCHQ-headquarters

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has slammed a new British law allowing government intelligence agencies to conduct mass interceptions of online communications, calling it a blow to the right to privacy.

The rights group said Tuesday the new law further expands the British government’s surveillance powers.

The legislation is intended to replace a law that became invalid when the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled in April that blanket data retention breaches the right to privacy.

The rights group also said “the new law does not adequately address the human rights requirements laid out in the court’s ruling.”

“It is outrageous that instead of reforming its laws to address concerns about its involvement in mass surveillance, the UK government is renewing its powers to monitor the communications of people who aren’t suspected of breaking any laws,” said HRW’s Izza Leghtas.

According to the right group, under the law announced on July 10, the British government would be able to demand telephone and internet companies in the UK and abroad to gather metadata on their customers’ communications and keep them up to 12 months.

Meanwhile, British government lawyers have admitted at a tribunal that Britain’s intelligence agencies; the GCHQ (The Government Communications Headquarters) , MI5 (Britain’s domestic spying apparatus) and MI6 (British Secret Service) , do intercept mass data, including communications of innocent people in order to find their targets.

The confession came as the UK’s intelligence agencies face a legal action from civil liberty groups over the alleged use of mass surveillance programs. The liberty groups say the agencies conduct huge surveillance activities that are “not in accordance with the law” and breach individual rights.

The tribunal follows last year’s revelations by a former US intelligence contractor, Edward Snowden, of UK and US spying and surveillance activities.

Back to top button