A landmark victory preserving privacy
Provisions of the Investigatory Powers Act 2016 have recently been under scrutiny before the High Court.
From now on, security and intelligence services must acquire ‘prior independent authorisation’ when attempting to obtain an individuals’ communication data from their respective telecom providers.
The civil rights campaign group, ‘Liberty’, hailed this as a ‘landmark victory’, safeguarding our privacy.
The High Court ruled it will be unlawful for the likes of MI5, MI6 and GCHQ to obtain an individuals’ communication data from telecom providers, without obtaining such prior independent authorisation in criminal investigations.
Independent authorisation will most likely come from a judge or the Office for Communications Data Authorisations.
This means that security and intelligence services will now operate under the same legal regime as
the police.
Privacy prevails.
Find out more about Liberty’s RIPA victory.
See coverage from The Guardian on the landmark case.
Contact the Public Defender Service to instruct one of our criminal defence lawyers for privacy and RIPA cases.