UK and Sweden violated human rights by bugging citizens

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British and Swedish intelligence services have violated basic human rights by bugging civilians, the European Court of Human Rights ruled Tuesday.

Civil rights activists who sounded the alarm for the massive and untargeted interception of data are right, the court in Strasbourg, France.

Such data collection by intelligence agencies is not in itself prohibited. It is, however, bound to strict conditions. The British GCHQ and the Swedish FRA have not complied with this, says the court.

The eavesdropping was brought to light by the American whistleblower Edward Snowden. He revealed in 2013 that the intelligence services collected and processed large amounts of data by means of hacks. The data was to help the services detect and investigate threats.

These so-called bulk datasets, however, largely consist of data from organizations and persons who are not part of an investigation, because they are not in the crosshairs of the intelligence services. According to the court, human rights have been violated with this large-scale, untargeted collection.

In 2015, the GCHQ admitted to large-scale hacking of computers, telephones and networks to track citizens. Still, the intelligence agency has always said that the wiretapping is not against the law. It would also have prevented attacks.

Still on the same issue,

The Swedish FRA has not yet responded to the court’s ruling.

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