Government espionage on people, not privacy violation: UK court

Britain’s Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) has ruled that the UK espionage program on individuals, including through mass surveillance of the internet, does not amount to violation of the privacy rights of citizens.

The case, prompted by revelations from the US whistleblower Edward Snowden, was filed at the IPT by Privacy International, Liberty, Amnesty International, the American Civil Liberties Union and a number of other overseas human rights groups against UK’s espionage agency, Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ).

According to leaks by Snowden, the British spying agency collects and stores vast quantities of global email messages, Facebook posts, internet histories and calls, and shares them with the US National Security Agency (NSA).

The rights organizations argued that their private communications have been probably monitored under GCHQ’s electronic surveillance program, Tempora.

They also claimed that information obtained through the Prism and Upstream programs of the NSA may have been shared with British intelligence services.

However, the court ruled on Friday that the British intelligence agencies “are not seeking, nor asserting that the system entitles them to seek to carry out what has been described as ‘mass’ or ‘bulk’ surveillance.”

“Save in one possible (and to date hypothetical) respect, we have ruled that the current regime, both in relation to Prism and Upstream [intercept programs]…when conducted in accordance with the requirements which we have considered, is lawful and human rights-compliant,” the IPT concluded.

The IPT has never upheld any complaint against GCHQ since the judicial body was established 14 years ago.

Since there is no right of appeal against the IPT’s rulings in the British courts, the human rights groups which filed the complaint said they would appeal to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France.

The human rights court will consider appeals from the IPT only if the complainants have exhausted all domestic remedies.

“We will now appeal to Strasbourg, who might not be as inclined to put their trust in the UK government given what we know so far,” said Amnesty UK’s legal adviser, Rachel Logan.

“The government has managed to bluff their way out of this, retreating into closed hearings, and constantly playing the ‘national security’ card. The tribunal has accepted that approach. We have had to painstakingly drag out every detail we could from an aggressively resistant government,” she added.

The UK government has lauded the ruling with Home Secretary Theresa May, saying, “I welcome this judgment from the Investigatory Powers Tribunal.”

ASH/HMV/SS