Liberty takes action against the British Intelligence Services

Anyone interested in issues of privacy and data protection cannot have avoided the recent allegations in The Guardian (and now, everywhere else) about blanket surveillance by GCHQ of emails and phone calls between UK residents, when they have been routed in and out of the UK through servers held abroad; and about the use by UK authorities of surveillance information on UK residents collected by the US, without going through the usual domestic legal checks on collection of such information. Liberty has now announced that it is taking legal action against the British Intelligence Services. It will argue that their actions have breached both the provisions of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000, and the right to respect for private life, home and correspondence under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Liberty’s press release of today (25 June 2013) can be seen at https://www.liberty-human-rights.org.uk/media/press/2013/liberty-issues-claim-against-british-intelligence-servic.php.