It has been reported that the system that allowed spy agency GCHQ access to vast amounts of personal data from telecoms companies was unlawful for more than a decade, a surveillance watchdog has ruled.
Lee Munson, Security Researcher at Comparitech.com:
“While it is unfortunate, unlawful and, perhaps unsurprising, that GCHQ had been allowed to collect vast amounts of telecommunications data without any real level of oversight in the past, the damage done to the privacy of UK citizens was minimal.
Or so we have been led to believe.
We can only hope that the way in which requests were handed over, and the information subsequently supplied by telecoms companies, was indeed relevant to any investigations into possible terrorist or criminal activity.
Likewise, it is for individual citizens to determine whether they believe the current system of checks and balances is sufficient to allow law enforcement agencies to do their work without prying into the lives of those who abide by the rules.”
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