The Home Office have today announced a consultation on the UK’s legal communications data retention regime – a consultation which will impact the Investigatory Powers Act 2016. This is hugely important, as once again it will change the laws which the Government use to access people’s communications data – the information which says who sent […]
Investigatory Powers Act
Big Brother Watch at the European Court of Human Rights – Case Summary
Big Brother Watch and Others v UK On Tuesday, our case against UK Government surveillance was heard in the Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights. It is really quite exceptional for a case to be given a full hearing – most proceedings are dealt with in writing – but this demonstrates how important […]
Big Brother Watch and Others v UK at the European Court of Human Rights
After 4 years, our case against UK Government surveillance is getting a hearing in the Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights. In 2013, Edward Snowden revealed that the UK intelligence agency GCHQ was running a mass surveillance and bulk communications interception programme known as TEMPORA. UK intelligence agencies were also receiving data from […]
The French-British action plan on internet security is likely to make us less, not more safe
Earlier this afternoon the Home Office published a French-British Action Plan on its website. You can read it here The “action plan” agreed by Prime Minister Theresa May and French President Emmanuel Macron outlines 4 steps for an “initiative to ensure the internet cannot be used as a safe space for terrorists and criminals”. Whilst […]
CJEU judgment says UK Government’s bulk retention of our communications data is illegal
The Court of Justice of the European Union today published the final judgment in relation to the Tom Watson MP (and formerly David Davis MP) case regarding the lawfulness of the Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Act (DRIPA). The court has ruled that: Communications data (the who, when, what and where of our telephone and […]