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GCHQ intelligence sharing 'was unlawful', tribunal rules GCHQ censured over sharing of internet surveillance data with US
(35 minutes later)
UK agency GCHQ's sharing of intelligence gathered by US mass surveillance programmes was unlawful, a tribunal has ruled. UK surveillance agency GCHQ has been officially censured for not revealing enough about how it shares information with its American counterparts.
The Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) said the intelligence sharing regime between the agency and America's National Security Agency did not comply with human rights law until December. The Investigatory Powers Tribunal said GCHQ failed until December 2014 to make clear enough details of how it shared data from mass internet surveillance.
The IPT cited a lack of transparency. It was the IPT's first ruling against an intelligence agency in its 15-year history.
It is the first time the tribunal has ruled against an intelligence agency in its 15-year history. The Home Office said the government was "committed to transparency".
It follows a ruling in December that the current system of UK intelligence collection did not breach the European Convention of Human Rights. In December the IPT ruled that the current system of UK intelligence collection did not breach the European Convention of Human Rights, following a complaint by campaign groups Privacy International and Liberty.
But the tribunal ruled that the public disclosure of two paragraphs of additional detail was essential to make the public regime "sufficiently foreseeable". But the tribunal has now ruled that the public disclosure of two paragraphs of additional detail was essential to make the public regime "sufficiently foreseeable".
Before December, it said: "The regime governing the soliciting, receiving, storing and transmitting by UK authorities of private communications of individuals located in the UK, which have been obtained by US authorities pursuant to Prism and/or (on the claimants' case) Upstream, contravened Articles 8 or 10 [of the European Convention of Human Rights.]"
Article 8 is the right to privacy, article 11 the right to freedom of expression.
The agency is now compliant, the tribunal said.The agency is now compliant, the tribunal said.
Campaign groups Privacy International and Liberty were among those who made the initial complaint.
'Violated rights''Violated rights'
"We now know that, by keeping the public in the dark about their secret dealings with the National Security Agency, GCHQ acted unlawfully and violated our rights," said James Welch, legal director for Liberty."We now know that, by keeping the public in the dark about their secret dealings with the National Security Agency, GCHQ acted unlawfully and violated our rights," said James Welch, legal director for Liberty.
"The tribunal believes the limited safeguards revealed during last year's legal proceedings are an adequate protection of our privacy. "That their activities are now deemed lawful is thanks only to the degree of disclosure Liberty and the other claimants were able to force from our secrecy-obsessed government."
"We disagree, and will be taking our fight to the European Court of Human Rights." He said they disagreed with the ruling that GCHQ was now compliant and would fight it in the European Court of Human Rights.
Eric King, deputy director of Privacy International, said: "We must not allow agencies to continue justifying mass surveillance programs using secret interpretations of secret laws."Eric King, deputy director of Privacy International, said: "We must not allow agencies to continue justifying mass surveillance programs using secret interpretations of secret laws."
He said the ruling was a "vindication" of the actions of Edward Snowden. He said the ruling was a "vindication" of the actions of Edward Snowden, the former US intelligence analyst who revealed details about UK and US surveillance practices.
This case followed revelations by the former US intelligence analyst Mr Snowden about UK and US surveillance practices. A Home Office spokesman said: "[The government] has made public more detail than ever before about the work of the security and intelligence agencies, including through the publication of statutory codes of practice.
"We have now made public the detail of the safeguards that underpin requests to overseas governments for support on interception."
A Downing Street spokeswoman said the judgment did not require GCHQ to change its operations.
What are Prism and Upstream?
Prism is a mass surveillance system launched in 2007 by the US National Security Agency (NSA).
It allows the organisation to "receive" data held by a range of US internet firms, and was designed to overcome earlier "constraints" in counterterrorism data collection, according to a leaked presentation dated April 2013.
That data apparently includes emails, video clips, photos, voice and video calls, social networking details, and logins.
Companies and internet services it mines include Microsoft, Skype, Google, YouTube, Yahoo, and Facebook, the leaked information suggests.
Upstream is the "collection of communications on fibre cables and infrastructure as data flows past", according to an NSA document.
The implication is that the agency is able to obtain and study communications without having to request the information from internet companies, using its Prism programme.
Surveillance glossary