EUROPE: Court rules against Britain over mass surveillance
Britain’s mass surveillance programme has violated people’s right to privacy, Europe’s human rights court ruled on Thursday. Judges voted six to one the effort by its intelligence agency GCHQ for obtaining data from communications providers was “not in accordance with the law”, and there were “insufficient safeguards in respect of confidential journalistic material”. They also […]
Court rules against Britain over mass surveillance
Britain’s mass surveillance programme has violated people’s right to privacy, Europe’s human rights court ruled on Thursday.
Judges voted six to one the effort by its intelligence agency GCHQ for obtaining data from communications providers was “not in accordance with the law”, and there were “insufficient safeguards in respect of confidential journalistic material”.
They also voted by five to two the mass trawling for information violated Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights guaranteeing the right to privacy.
The GCHQ programme was revealed by American whistle-blower Edward Snowden, a former National Security Agency (NSA) operative, as part of his sensational leaks on US spying.