Friday, February 06, 2015

Blog #1: British Web Surveillance Violated Human Rights


A UK court ruled today that Britain’s GCHQ violated human rights by accessing intelligence from the NSA’s mass surveillance program. The GCHQ violated the right to privacy and free speech. This is the first time that the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) has ruled against an intelligence and security agency in 15 years. In December, the Court had rejected the accusations of “mass surveillance. It has been said that this was all necessary to share information about terrorist and criminal groups to the US. ” The surveillance programs were challenged by Amnesty International, Privacy International, as well as a few other rights groups. However, the agency is now considered compliant after disclosing details of the arrangement late last year. Some rights groups are still dissatisfied and will challenge the December ruling in the European Court for Human Rights.
            Many people believe that intelligence agencies act like they are above the law to get what they want. This mass surveillance has been a reoccurring problem over the past decade. This violates our human rights privacy. The mass surveillance has affected millions around the world. There is no reason that these intelligence agencies should be surveying anyone unless there was an absolutely good reason. If they were surveying for terrorist and criminal groups then they need to just look at them and not every one else. The intelligence agencies need to begin disclosing certain details to the public. Had the agencies disclosed what was going to on, they would not have breached the human rights law. 

Emily Burris

02/06/15

9:44

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