Security News > 2021 > May > Snowden was right, rules human rights court as it declares UK spy laws broke ECHR
Surveillance laws permitting GCHQ to operate its Tempora dragnet mass surveillance system broke the law, the European Court of Human Rights has ruled.
"The Court considers that, when viewed as a whole, the section 8(4) regime, despite its safeguards... did not contain sufficient 'end-to-end' safeguards to provide adequate and effective guarantees against arbitrariness and the risk of abuse," ruled the European Court of Human Rights's Grand Chamber.
The Liberty human rights pressure group celebrated today's judgment, with lawyer Megan Goulding saying in a statement: "We all want to have control over our personal information, and to have a government that respects our right to privacy and our freedom of expression. That's what makes today's victory, and the court's recognition of the dangers posed by these mass surveillance powers, so important."
What the ECtHR said about the ECHR. Today's judgment ruled on three separate cases that had been linked together by the court because they all raised similar issues about the lawfulness of British dragnet surveillance laws.
Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights is where the "Right to respect for private and family life" comes from, as set out in the UK legal version of it contained in the Human Rights Act 1998.
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, on behalf of the British government, argued that legal changes since the original Snowden revelations of 2013 meant the UK's laws now complied in full with the ECHR. "The Government contended that the interception of communications under the bulk interception regime would only have resulted in a meaningful interference with a person's Article 8 rights if his or her communications were either selected for examination or actually examined by an analyst," said the court.