UK Snooping Charter Breaks EU Law
Posted: 16th Oct, 2003 By: MarkJ
The UK governments so called 'snooping charter', which will make it easier for faceless people to store and track your online activities, has been found to breach the European Convention on Human Rights:
According to the opinion, comissioned by Privacy International from law firm Covington & Burling, the European Commission's framework directive on the retention of communications data is in itself unlawful, which means that any state in the process of actually implementing it may have to think again.
In the UK, this could add another chapter to the tortuous and - so far - unfortunate history of the 'snooper's charter, which is currently before Parliament as a series of Statutory Instruments. Although a little watered down from its previous version, this still requires widespread retention of data as regards web sites visited, email addresses, phone calls and mobile phone location data, and still gives numerous public authorities access to that data. According to the opinion, it's precisely this scattergun approach that breaches the Convention on Human Rights:
"Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) guarantees every individual the right to respect for his or her private life, subject only to narrow exceptions where government action is imperative. The Framework Decision and national laws similar to it would interfere with this right, by requiring the accumulation of large amounts of information bearing on individuals' private activities. This interference with the privacy rights of every user of European-based communications services cannot be justified under the limited exceptions envisaged by Article 8 because it is neither consistent with the rule of law nor necessary in a democratic society."
Still, what does the government care about individual privacy anymore? So long as they suspect that everybody could potentially be a paedophile or have an AK47 under their pillows then it's all fine and justified. Where is this world headed? More @ The Register.
According to the opinion, comissioned by Privacy International from law firm Covington & Burling, the European Commission's framework directive on the retention of communications data is in itself unlawful, which means that any state in the process of actually implementing it may have to think again.
In the UK, this could add another chapter to the tortuous and - so far - unfortunate history of the 'snooper's charter, which is currently before Parliament as a series of Statutory Instruments. Although a little watered down from its previous version, this still requires widespread retention of data as regards web sites visited, email addresses, phone calls and mobile phone location data, and still gives numerous public authorities access to that data. According to the opinion, it's precisely this scattergun approach that breaches the Convention on Human Rights:
"Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) guarantees every individual the right to respect for his or her private life, subject only to narrow exceptions where government action is imperative. The Framework Decision and national laws similar to it would interfere with this right, by requiring the accumulation of large amounts of information bearing on individuals' private activities. This interference with the privacy rights of every user of European-based communications services cannot be justified under the limited exceptions envisaged by Article 8 because it is neither consistent with the rule of law nor necessary in a democratic society."
Still, what does the government care about individual privacy anymore? So long as they suspect that everybody could potentially be a paedophile or have an AK47 under their pillows then it's all fine and justified. Where is this world headed? More @ The Register.
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