Electronic surveillance

U.K. COURT FINDS GOVERNMENT’S SURVEILLANCE POWERS UNLAWFUL

THE U.K. GOVERNMENT’S mass surveillance powers were deemed unlawful on Tuesday in a court ruling that could force changes to the country’s spy laws.

Three judges at London’s Court of Appeal found that a sweeping data retention law, which allowed authorities to access people’s phone and email records, was not subject to adequate safeguards. The court ruledthat access to the private data “should be restricted to the objective of fighting serious crime”; the court also said that such data should not be turned over to authorities until after a “prior review by a court or an independent administrative body.”

The case was originally brought by the Labour member of parliament Tom Watson following the introduction of the 2014 Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Act. That law expired in 2016 and has since been replaced by the Investigatory Powers Act, which expanded the government’s surveillance authority further, retroactively legalizing controversial spy tactics exposed in documents leaked by Edward Snowden. Human rights group Liberty, which represented Watson in the case, said Tuesday’s ruling meant parts of the Investigatory Powers Act – dubbed the “Snoopers’ Charter” by critics – would now need to be reformed.