UK calls for surveillance overhaul
Print Edition
Britain’s terrorism law watchdog said yesterday the legal framework underpinning security services’ ability to spy on the public’s communications was fragmented, undemocratic and “in the long run intolerable.”
David Anderson, Britain’s independent reviewer of anti-terrorism laws, said the framework overseeing the interception of e-mails, phone calls and online activity by police and spies needed a major overhaul, and that the government needed to spell out why the authorities were pressing for even more powers.
However, he said, while it should not be easy for the state to access communications, the intelligence agencies should be able to carry out the bulk interception of data.
“Each intrusive power must be shown to be necessary, clearly spelled out in law, limited in accordance with international human rights standards and subject to demanding and visible safeguards,” said Anderson in a 373-page report for Prime Minister David Cameron.
A debate about how to protect privacy whilst ensuring the security agencies have the powers they need has raged since former US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden leaked details about mass surveillance by British and US spies.
Last week, US President Barack Obama signed a law to amend a government surveillance program that had swept up millions of Americans’ telephone records, in the first major legislative reform since the Snowden revelations two years ago.
Britain’s security chiefs argue they are facing a capability gap because of technological advances, and say that their work has been severely hampered by Snowden’s disclosures.
The head of Britain’s GCHQ eavesdropping agency last year called on technology firms such as Twitter and Facebook to allow security services greater access to their networks. “We simply do not have the coverage which we had five years ago,” said Sara Thornton, chairman of the National Police Chiefs’ Council.
Cameron, fresh from an election victory last month, has promised a swathe of new security measures, the most striking and controversial of which are plans to give police greater powers to monitor Britons’ communications and web activities in what opponents have dubbed a “snoopers’ charter.”
Anderson said it was time for a “clean slate” describing the current system as confused, making it “undemocratic, unnecessary and — in the long run — intolerable.”
He called for a new easily understood, comprehensive law with improved safeguards, and judges, not ministers, approving warrants to allow access to the content of emails, phone calls and other communications.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
