Europe's top court says UK surveillance rules are unconstitutional

Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2016/12/21/europes-top-court-says-uk-su.html

3 Likes

I formerly liked this aspect of David Davis. Shame about his moronic Brexiteer side.

I guess he’s like the UK’s Rand Paul. Occasionally right, mostly very wrong.

12 Likes

it’s even better, the ECJ ruled in the same case that a similar Swedish law is not compatible with European law and this has consequences for all national surveillance laws in EU member countries: The UK and Swedish government argued that the local laws are off-limits for the EU (and the court), but the judges told them otherwise.

Let’s see if the German data retention law (passed last December, will force all ISPs to store data not later than June 2017) survives this.

5 Likes

And what about tom watson? The thorn in the side of gov surveillance for years and copyfighter extraordinaire now strangely silent on this… oh yeah, he was made deputy labour leader. A choice quote from him in that guardian article -

At a time when we face a real and ever-present terrorist threat, the security forces may require access to personal information none of us would normally hand over. That’s why it’s absolutely vital that proper safeguards are put in place to ensure this power is not abused, as it has been in the recent past.

Most of us can accept that our privacy may occasionally be compromised in the interests of keeping us safe, but no one would consent to giving the police or the government the power to arbitrarily seize our phone records or emails to use as they see fit. It’s for judges, not ministers, to oversee these powers.”

Emphasis mine and utter bullshit. What safeguards, tom? This law is a rubber stamping exercise for judges and nothing more. No, I do NOT consent to my privacy being compromised for security services to try and consistently fail to stop any terrorist act, and certainly not so that organisations like the god damn gambling commission, food standards agency, charity commission, ambulance service etc. can dip in to my browsing history when they feel like it.

What about shami chakrabarti? Also gone silent… oh yeah, she was given a life peerage wasn’t she. When it came down to it they betrayed their principles for a bit of privilege and power - Shami Chakrabarti and Jeremy Corbyn were the loudest critics of the Snooper’s Charter – but now theyre in power, they’ve gone quiet | The Independent | The Independent - when those same MPs were under police surveillance themselves.

This is great news don’t get me wrong but isn’t it all for nought seeing as we’re soon to be out of the EU? Not that I expect our wonderful authoritarian overlord, teflon theresa, to accept this ruling anyway.

4 Likes

Enjoy your sovereign government making laws without any meddling of stinkin’ eurocrats. Looks like a marvelous start so far …

2 Likes

Lol yeah, that horrible EU, always trying to enforce human rights law, and trade standards. Those villains.

5 Likes

It’s hilarious that the current Brexit Secretary, and one of the leading “Leave.eu” voices brought this case to the ECJ.

I’m assuming that there could have been a ECRH case to answer too? (which we are not leaving)

A lone ray of sunshine finds us in this cavern called 2016

Hey, it is not the lone ray of sunshine.

Let us never forget Top Hat Kitten.

1 Like

This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.