In a recent press release Amnesty International reports:
Amnesty International, Liberty and Privacy International have announced today they are taking the UK Government to the European Court of Human Rights over its indiscriminate mass surveillance practices. The legal challenge is based on documents made available by the whistle-blower Edward Snowden which revealed mass surveillance practices taking place on an industrial scale.
The organizations filed the joint application to the Strasbourg Court last week after the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT), which has jurisdiction over GCHQ, MI5 and MI6, ruled that the UK legal regime for the UK government’s mass surveillance practices was compliant with human rights.
[...] However, the Tribunal held considerable portions of the proceedings in secret.
“It is ridiculous that the government has been allowed to rely on the existence of secret policies and procedures discussed with the Tribunal behind closed doors – to demonstrate that it is being legally transparent,” said Nick Williams [, Amnesty International’s Legal Counsel].
[Editor's Note: The quoted text is reproduced here exactly as it appeared in the original. For those who may not be familiar, there are apparently three different parties involved: (1) Amnesty International, (2) Liberty, and (3) Privacy International.]
(Score: 2) by Bot on Sunday April 12 2015, @11:48AM
>>Think about it: every interaction, every transaction, every property tracked.
>Sounds like a nightmare scenario
My argument is that "every interaction, every transaction, every property trackABLE" is way worse.
As a good guy you might want no surveillance, as I said, and I am perfectly ok with that, society worked more or less ok that way.
I am also aware that the same system that is building the police state is the last thing on earth that should be allowed to manage it, and that wrestling control away from it is practically impossible.
Still, you haven't convinced me it's not a missed occasion.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2015, @01:52PM
Still, you haven't convinced me it's not a missed occasion.
Then you don't understand the human need for privacy.
(Score: 2) by Bot on Friday April 17 2015, @08:57AM
> Then you don't understand the human need for privacy.
Look at my nick :)
JK, the problem is that the human need for privacy is being undermined in irreversible ways, as we speak. People already have to adapt to being publicly shamed, and it's going to get worse. So your point is valid but getting obsolete.
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