Electronic surveillance

UK government undertook illegal digital surveillance for 17 years

A court judgement last week by the Investigatory Powers Tribunal found that the government has been illegally collecting information about UK citizens over the last 17 years.

The ruling concerned information collected by the Government Communication Headquarters (GCHQ) in the BCD (Bulk Communications Data) collection and the BPD (Bulk Personal Datasets) programme.

The BCD contains information about when and where communication took place: what phone calls were made at what time, between which email addresses mail was exchanged, as well as Google Maps searches and web browser history. Using intercepted website cookies in combination with logged IP addresses, a person’s identity and communication habits can be charted.

The BPD gathers information such as medical records, electoral registers and tax records – then makes it possible for intelligence agencies to perform searches of these files.