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A legal challenge against the British government's secret surveillance activities has won in court, with the Investigatory Powers Tribunal judging the collection of bulk personal data—conducted by GCHQ and MI5 between 1998 and 2015—to have been illegal.
Responding to a claim brought by Privacy International, the 70-page judgment handed down this morning [PDF] found that the spooks' surveillance activities had been taking place without adequate safeguards or supervision for over a decade; and as such were in breach of Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
Due to litigation brought by the charity, the Tribunal ruled that there was not adequate oversight of the bulk communications data system by which GCHQ and MI5 secretly collected data from public electronic communications networks (PECNs) through secret directions given under section 94 of the Telecommunications Act 1984, until after July 2015.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anal Pumpernickel on Tuesday October 18 2016, @06:49PM
So taxpayers foot the bill. Where is the prison time for the government thugs who violated people's rights?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 18 2016, @10:24PM
Because it wasn't a criminal offense. Breaking the law doesn't necessarily make you a criminal, it depends on the specific law in question.
But don't let facts get in the way of a good rant.
(Score: 2) by Anal Pumpernickel on Tuesday October 18 2016, @10:40PM
The topic was about how the government will never punish itself. You pointing out that their actions were not a criminal offense is a good example of this, as blatantly violating people's rights on a massive scale should be a criminal offense. There is almost never significant repercussions for these scumbags.