Human rights groups have launched a major new legal challenge over mass surveillance programs revealed by the National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden.
Ten organizations — including Privacy International, the American Civil Liberties Union, and Amnesty International — are taking up the landmark case against the U.K. government in the European Court of Human Rights (pictured above). In a 115-page complaint released on Thursday, the groups allege that “blanket and indiscriminate” surveillance operations carried out by British spy agencies in collaboration with their U.S. counterparts violate privacy and freedom of expression rights.
The case represents the first time Europe’s top human rights court has been asked to consider the legality of surveillance exposed in the Snowden documents. Its judgments are legally binding and could potentially have ramifications for how surveillance is conducted by U.K. agencies.
“Through bulk surveillance programs, the U.S. and U.K. governments intercept the private communications and data of millions of people around the world,” said Ashley Gorski, staff attorney at the ACLU National Security Project. “Not only is bulk surveillance unlawful, but it has a deeply chilling and corrosive effect on political discourse and our personal communications. We are hopeful that the European Court of Human Rights will recognize that this mass surveillance violates fundamental rights to privacy and freedom of speech, and that the court’s ruling will help put an end to these practices on a global scale.”
An appendix to the complaint names more than a dozen surveillance programs that it says violate rights and do not have adequate safeguards against abuse. Among them are programs operated by the British surveillance agency Government Communications Headquarters — such as KARMA POLICE — which were exposed by The Intercept last year. KARMA POLICE was designed to allow the U.K. agency to build “a web browsing profile for every visible user on the internet.” The appendix also focuses on NSA-operated programs that have been shared with British spies, such as XKEYSCORE, a tool that can be used to sift through masses of emails, online chats, and virtually every other kind of internet data.
The complaint argues that the scale of the surveillance “is unprecedented in terms of (a) the number of individuals whose communications are potentially affected; (b) the quantity of communications content and related communications data that is actually initially intercepted, extracted, filtered, stored, analysed and/or disseminated by the U.K. intelligence agencies.” It adds that the “the operation of sophisticated covert surveillance powers without adequate safeguards is ipso facto disproportionate.”
A spokesperson for the U.K. government’s Home Office declined to comment on the specifics of the case, but said in a statement: “Our security and intelligence agencies operate under some of the tightest controls in the world and the government is clear the U.K.’s investigatory powers legislation is fully compliant with ECHR requirements.”
Update: October 3, 2016
This article has been updated to include a response from the U.K. government.
Yahoo posts rare mea culpa. Why now?
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/yahoo-secretly-scanned-customer-emails-170628370.html
Top Super-Powers eventually collapse of their own weight. Due to arrogance and imperial ambitions, the government, even in democratic nations, stops serving or listening to their citizens.
Since they are too arrogant and isolated from the citizenry, they are incapable of the necessary reforms – they merely collapse. England lost the top spot in less than 4 years. The former Soviet Union spent too much on their military and became too bureaucratic.
Since 9/11, the United States seems to traveling down the very same road. They also aren’t serving or listening to their citizenry. We have completely destroyed our Bill of Rights and constitutional “rule of law”.
We will merely lose the #1 spot to China or India – that will be a truly scary world!
Why would anyone believe that GCHQ/NSA would abide by the ruling of this court (or any other) in the unlikely event that it rules against them? Clearly the Imperial US has only contempt for the rule of law continuing their torture programs and illegal wars with impunity.
Further, I don’t really see how it can be stopped. The internet and digital technology in general is deeply flawed and there is a question of whether or not it can ever be safe to use if you value privacy. Today, the internet is awash in sloppy code done as fast as possible with little regard for security or anything else but a quick buck, and deliberately weak code to make spying easier and the relentless demand by the tech giants for ever more of our data.
Even if there was a favorable ruling How could it be stopped? It can’t the technology is deeply flawed and crippled by malicious and just plane crappy code lots of it.
There are still many unanswered question about the spying which the Snowden documents do not address (or haven’t so far) For example, are we to believe that NSA and the Imperial US do not follow the flow of money around the globe, that they can’t tell when a billion or a million is sent to the Virgin Islands, or that drug money is being laundered? Are we to believe that Microsoft, Apple Google Oracle and Dell all gleefully worked with NSA et al before Snowden but not Intel or the other chip makers? Are to believe that the elected officials and carrier bureaucrats of the US and many other nations are not followed closely? That the entire K street lobbying machine is not monitored closely?
Lots of people are interested in stopping the mass survelance but no one is offering solutions other than asking the NSA to stop – which is unlikely in the extreme. The technology can’t be “fixed” as far as I know, not even SWIFT or the US Fed can protect their systems.
I had thought that quantum communications would be a solution but it was pointed out to me that the systems to get the info into the quantum state and out again are extremely complex and will be just as vulnerable so I don’t even see a solution on the horizon.
The current cat and mouse game with hackers from the NSA or criminal hackers rages on, no one is safe even Snowden could be hacked. It is all down to crippling flaws in the technology itself + enhancement of those flaws.
The global Empire of the Exceptionals rolls on collecting ever more data from ever more people – Snowden, on a practical level, has had no effect what-so-ever the data collection is wider and stronger today than before his revelations.
Are those KARMA POLICE profiles subject to DPA?
“Passive” surveillance is when the target is unaware he or she is being spied upon, where the government officials or contractors stay undercover.
Throughout world history, domestic spying always devolves into “overt” surveillance – where the undercover official intentionally “out” themselves – attempting to harass and intimidate their targets (which are mostly innocent people).
In the United States once domestic spying devolves from “passive” surveillance to “overt surveillance – it then becomes a federal crime that can carry prison time for local/state police officers, federal agents and their private contractors under the Title 18 Criminal Code and federal “pattern & practice” statutes.
Please continue writing updates on the progression of this case, thank you!
Comments to attack Snowden can only be made by people/droid whose jobs depend on saying so.
After all, NSA’s operatives pride themselves in mastering the art of online deception. Their astroturfers pride themselves in wining arguments they want to push, and defeating arguments they disapprove of. All with using online tricks and deception.
From the start, it smelt a rat when they started personality-destroying tactics. They described him as a school leaver and a loser. Luckily for people around the world, we got the chances, quickly, to hear from Snowden directly, and we learnt how mature and coherent he is in defending the basic human right of privacy.
And he did it without the help of an army of criminal PR professionals and pathological liars used by politicians who argue for mass surveillance.
All commenters who criticize Snowden’s actions are confirmed NSA employees? Um, how do you know that, exactly?
Santa, is that you?
Of course. The Intercept is very popular up here at the Pole.
Lol…there’s not many people reading it anywhere else!
Hopefully this isn’t a mere symbolic gesture to paste a veneer of altruism in the history books.
Europeans and the EU are good obedient american puppets. Nothing will come of it.
Of topic, but I was kinda hoping the Simpsons would do a bit on a fish with five eyes.
This is very good news. And but one answer to those who snidely ask what good Edward Snowden has done.
If the Court rules against the UK, watch it suddenly decide that Brexit was great and should be implemented post haste.
The ECHR predates the EU and has little, and even nothing to do with it. Is is in fact an institution of the Council of Europe.
The Nasty Party under May’s predecessor did have some nasty words about the truly silly notion that human beings allegedly have some inalienable rights that aren’t subject to the whim of MPs or press barons, without realising that Blighty played a large role in the establishment of the European Convention on Human Rights. “Never again”, they cried after WW2 and Nuremberg. Were they sincere?
What has the “European convention on Human Rights” ever done for Britain?
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/video/2016/apr/25/patrick-stewart-sketch-what-has-the-echr-ever-done-for-us-video
Very funny! Thanks! I enjoyed this immensely.
President Obama reading the morning intelligence report: ” I see London. I see France I see Angela’s underpants.”
Yes, it’s just so great the Imperial courts will hear all about how the spying is helping us and the NSA is our friend. If they rule against the Empire you can knock me over with a feather. Why anyone places any integrity on the Imperial courts is beyond me. The entire Neoliberal power structure is corrupt to the core – even those elite institutions within it that say bad things about it but take Neoliberal money.
Sadly, between fear of terrorism, fear of Russia, and fear of those who would change the status quo, this is likely to continue. (Fun fact: did you know that Scotland Yard spied on fans of Star Trek and The X-Files?)
no way.
and crooked Hellary and her TPP terrorist tribunal will determine the legality of persons going to prison for persons simply objecting to paying corporations for lost profits.
https://theintercept.com/2016/08/26/clinton-foundation-spin/
fyi – you can legalise genocide as they have done in israel since NAKBA 1948. This “it’s legal” crap has been going on for centuries. To use “it’s legal” as the measuring stick only demonstrates how lost humanity has become. The real measuring stick is the 10 commandments and the responsibility of having and maintaining a “good” operating environment of life support as Jesus and Muhammed teached.
The masters of the “it’s legal” program are the monsters who are pushing the TPP because robbing America just isnt enough for them.
https://theintercept.com/2016/02/08/why-goldman-ceo-lloyd-blankfein-called-sanders-dangerous/
I’m just wondering if you’ve read the ten commandments lately. The first four are OBEY, OBEY, OBEY and OBEY AUTHORITY. God doesn’t get abound to the value of human life until he makes damn sure you know who is in charge then we can start talking about human life.
You start doing things like not obeying authority and you’re going to hell buddy let’s get that straight first.
havent seen that. Have read recently and before.
searching..
epistle of the romans, chapter 13
8: Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.
9: For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
search the entire 2 books. only ref to obey commandment wise was mother and father.
That’s one way to hurry brexit along.