- Top UK Security Officer has justified the govt’s mass surveillance programmes as the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) permits external communications.
- RIPA allows indiscriminate monitoring of external communications under a general warrant, while internal communications between British residents within the UK may only be monitored pursuant to a specific warrant granted when unlawful activities are suspected.
- The justification for UK’s online interception policy comes after Snowden’s revelations about about mass surveillance under the Tempora programme by the U.K. monitoring agency GCHQ and the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA).
- While they claim the mass surveillance to be an indispensible part of protecting national security, human rights organisations have pointed out how they have used the loopholes to exploit privacy.
- The industry-scale surveillance of British residents has left many shocked leading to the filing of a case against the govt before the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT), which deals with complaints against the intelligence services.
- Read at: http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-opinion/mass-surveillance-is-permitted-by-law-in-the-uk/article6124676.ece
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