Communications of the ACM
GCHQ Violated Human Rights with Mass Data Interception, European Court Rules
The British government had argued in the court that bulk interception was necessary for national security, and that it had enabled law-enforcement agencies to uncover serious threats to the country.
Credit: Computing (U.K.)
The grand chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled on Tuesday that the Britain's spy agency Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) violated fundamental human rights by intercepting and processing vast amounts of people's private online communications.
The court said in its ruling that the regime for bulk data collection was unlawful, although it noted that the decision to operate such scheme did not itself breach the European convention on human rights.
The court also found that the spy agency's processes for sharing digital intelligence with foreign agencies were not illegal.
From Computing (U.K.)
View Full Article
No entries found