Since 30 December, 2016, the Investigatory Powers Act (IPA), also known as the “Snoopers’ Charter,” has been in force meaning the end of privacy for those living in the United Kingdom. Since this time the British state has realized a totalitarian-style surveillance apparatus which is arguably the most intrusive system found within any democracy throughout history giving the British state the power to arbitrarily monitor, intercept, record, and even hack the communications of the entire population. That is until last week when the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) gave a landmark ruling against the UK government’s mass surveillance program, stating that it violated human rights and offered “no real safeguards” to the public.
Since last year, the IPA has granted the British government enormous surveillance powers. As stipulated by the IPA, internet companies must now keep customers’ web traffic history for 12 months and it authorizes spying agencies and the police to conduct the mass hacking of personal computers, smartphones, information technology infrastructures and any electronic device. In effect, the IPA allows the British state to monitor, intercept, record and even hack internet communications, granting it sweeping powers to carry out mass digital surveillance, including “bulk hacking,” which enables police and state agencies to access and alter all types of electronic devices “on an industrial scale” even if the owners of these devices are not suspected of a crime. With the IPA, private information is up for surveillance to include details from banking to insurance information, from health records to smart tech data to all confidential records stored electronically. Some firms have even cashed in on the IPA and agencies such as the FBI, which have attempted to access such electronic devices as “GrayKey,” a new software created by Grayshift to meet the needs of governments.
The IPA has started to alarm software development companies, internet hosting providers, and developers of hardware and software for computers and smartphones. Why? The IPA also authorizes spying agencies and the police to undertake the mass hacking of personal computers, smartphones, information technology infrastructures and any electronic device. This legislation also includes the ability to intercept or unlock any software protocol that acts as a form of encryption or data protection. In effect, the IPA allows the British state to monitor, intercept, record and even hack internet communications, granting it sweeping powers to carry out mass digital surveillance, including “bulk hacking,” which enables police and state agencies to access and alter all types of electronic devices “on an industrial scale” even if the owners of these devices are not suspected of a crime.
And in 2015, the US government attempted to pressure Apple into cooperation over a case where the government requested that Apple unlock an iPhone where the courts backed up Apple’s decision not to comply. It’s rationale: that by so doing would make the iPhone vulnerable, according to Tim Cook. Apple has since demonstrated its commitment to user privacy by refusing to cooperate with the US government and by issuing a statement clarifying its position relative to the IPA and similar pressure put on the company to create a “backdoor” for the UK government: “Apple has never worked with any government agency from any country to create a “backdoor” in any of our products or services. We have also never allowed any government access to our servers. And we never will.”
Over the past two years Liberty, a human rights and civil liberties campaign group, has been speaking out launching a legal challenge to the “sweeping state spying powers” in the IPA. Additionally, post-referendum, there is a conflict between this act and the recent landmark ruling from the EU Court of Justice (CJEU) in 2016 which has deemed that the indiscriminate collection of emails is illegal as are core parts of the Snoopers’ Charter. Working to protect the privacy of individuals and maintain their right to keep their private information from spying agencies, Liberty has recently had luck with a recent win in the European Court which effectively ruled that the British government must rewrite key sections of this legislation in order to undo the suspicionless surveillance of the public which is incompatible with fundamental rights in EU law.
According to Big Brother Watch, “[T]he UK’s mass surveillance programmes, revealed by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, did ‘not meet the “quality of law” requirement’ and were ‘incapable of keeping the “interference” to what is “necessary in a democratic society” The landmark judgment marks the Court’s first ruling on UK mass surveillance programmes revealed by Mr Snowden.” This legal challenge was entirely crowd-funded by the “Privacy Not Prism” campaign which began in 2013, led by campaign groups Big Brother Watch, English PEN, Open Rights Group and Dr Constanze Kurz, a computer science expert, in the aftermath of Snowden’s revelation of Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) mass spying.
While technology can be used for nefarious purposes, we need to support those tech companies invested in the protection our civil liberties and our privacy from baseless surveillance which ultimately poses a threat to the freedom of the press, the rights of the press, and the proliferation and use of solid technology. In large part, thanks to Liberty and Big Brother Watch, those in the UK can continue to use their technology free from worry of illegal government interventions and spying. This decision also vindicates the work of those like Edward Snowden and Big Brother Watch
