UK Security Agencies Unlawfully Collected Data For 17 Years, Court Rules (theguardian.com)

British security agencies have secretly and unlawfully collected massive volumes of confidential personal data, including financial information, on citizens for more than a decade, top judges have ruled. The Guardian adds:The investigatory powers tribunal, which is the only court that hears complaints against MI5, MI6 and GCHQ, said the security services operated secret regimes to collect vast amounts of personal communications data, tracking individual phone and web use and large datasets of confidential personal information, without adequate safeguards or supervision for more than 10 years. The ruling said the regime governing the collection of bulk communications data (BCD) -- the who, where, when and what of personal phone and web communications -- failed to comply with article 8 protecting the right to privacy of the European convention of human rights (ECHR) between 1998, when it started, and 4 November 2015, when it was made public. It said the holding of bulk personal datasets (BPD) -- which might include medical and tax records, individual biographical details, commercial and financial activities, communications and travel data -- also failed to comply with article 8 for the decade it was in operation until its public avowal in March 2015.

Comments

Re:Since when?

[AmiMoJo]

In the UK and EU in general the government, even the secret service, must abide by the European Charter on Human Rights. That includes things like not torturing people, not locking them in a hole without charge or reason, and not violating their privacy without good reason.

The issue here is that bulk data collection violated the privacy of innocent people on a massive scale for years.

Re:Since when?

[dunkelfalke]

Unfortunately, even if they don't abide, nobody really gives a shit.
I mean, has something happened after it was discovered that CIA abducted people and tortured them at black sites in Romania and Poland, with the knowledge and help of the respective governments? Nope.