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17th April 2024 Issue no. 701
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UK government's proposed surveillance plans could be illegal
by Stephen Gregory
Lawyers have warned that the government's proposed surveillance plans may breach European data protection laws and could be challenged by the European Commission.
Legal experts said that there would be serious opposition to the real-time monitoring of internet use, emails and mobile telephone calls.
The government has also been warned that the plans, which are set to be announced in the Queen's Speech next month, could violate human rights laws.
David Cameron insists the moves are vital for national security to be able to keep pace with ever-advancing technology.
On Wednesday the Prime Minister said: "As I see it, there are some significant gaps in our defences, gaps because of the moving on of technology - people making telephone calls through the internet, rather than through fixed line - but also gaps in our defences because it isn't currently possible to use intelligence information in a court of law without sometimes endangering national security."
"I want us - and the Government wants us - to plug those gaps but let's be clear, we will do it in a way that properly respects civil liberties."
Justice Secretary Ken Clarke was keen to stress to stress that 'snooping' powers will not be as extensive as feared. He told BBC's Today programme on Radio 4: "The hoo-hah at the moment is based on rather alarming descriptions of what we are supposed to be doing. With communications, at the moment, records of all phone calls are kept and can be accessed.
"You can't listen to the phone call, if you are an intelligence man, but you can get a list of all the phone calls in the last year. If you want to listen to any of it, if you want to snoop, then you've got to get a warrant signed by the Home Secretary.
"Technology has moved on... so what is proposed is the rules nobody was complaining about when it was telephone calls should now be extended to others, with the same safeguards."
But Kathryn Wynn of law firm Pinsent Masons said that the proposals may go against European directives on both data protection and privacy.
"The general movement is to increase privacy of individuals and giving them data rights. The UK has had its knuckles rapped in the past," she said.
She said real-time monitoring of emails could lead to "fishing expeditions" against innocent people.
The European Commission could not comment in detail, but said: "Any measure that extends the scope of data retention at the national level, e.g. to cover new forms of communication, must comply with the Data Protection Directive (95/46/EC), the E-privacy Directive (2002/58/EC), as well as the Data Retention Directive."
18th April 2012