British government violates privacy, tribunal decides

This video from Britain says about itself:

Amnesty International being spied on by GCHQ/NSA

22 January 2014

Alice Wyss, a researcher at Amnesty International, says GCHQ are spying on the organisation.

From the BBC:

UK spy agencies broke privacy rules says tribunal

By Chris Baraniuk, Technology reporter

6 hours ago

UK spy agencies broke privacy rules by collecting large amounts of UK citizens’ data without adequate oversight, the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) has ruled.

Complaints about data collection by GCHQ, MI5 and MI6 were put forward by campaign group Privacy International.

The ruling said some data collection did not comply with the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

…

It was a “highly significant judgement”, Privacy International said.

As part of its review of the spy agencies’ activities, the IPT examined the organisations’ collection of communications data – involving the “who, where, when, how and with whom” was involved in conversations, but not their contents – and personal information about people.

Such data is “vital for identifying and developing intelligence targets”, according to GCHQ.

Article 8 of the ECHR states, however, that all citizens have the right to a private life and that any interference with personal data must be lawful and necessary.

“It is very significant,” said Graham Smith of London law firm Bird & Bird.

He added that much of the data collection had been carried out under an older piece of law – section 94 of the Telecommunications Act 1984.

“It gave absolutely no clue at all that it could be used for this particular purpose,” said Mr Smith.

“Everyone accepts that what the agencies do operationally has to be secret, but the laws that say what they can and can’t do shouldn’t be secret.”