Civil liberties and human rights group Liberty announced that the UK Court of Appeal has backed a challenge by MP Tom Watson to the Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Act (DRIPA). Watson was represented by Liberty.
The Court of Appeal ruled that the law, which expired at end-2016 and has been replaced by the Investigatory Powers Act from 2017, breached the rights of British people by not restricting access to the phone and internet data collected to the purpose of investigating serious crime, and by letting the police and public bodies authorise their own access. Liberty is also challenging the Investigatory Powers Act in a separate case to be heard in the High Court later in 2018.
The court said the regime let public bodies authorise their own access to personal phone and internet browsing records without due supervision, even outside of criminal probes, the Guardian reported. The three judges also said yhat Dripa was "inconsistent with EU law" because of this lack of safeguards, including the absence of "prior review by a court or independent administrative authority".
The Home Office announced measures in November in anticipation of the ruling. They include removing the power of self-authorisation for senior police officers and requiring approval for requests for confidential communications data to be granted by the new investigatory powers commissioner. Watson and other campaigners said these measures were “half-baked” and did not go far enough.
The judges declined to rule on the Home Office claim that the more rigorous “Watson safeguards” were not necessary for the use of bulk communications data for wider national security purposes. They said this point has already been referred to the European Court of Justice, in a case which is due to be heard in February.
In response to the ruling, the Open Rights Group (ORG) said the Government needed to admit that their surveillance legislation was flawed and make the necessary changes to the Investigatory Powers Act to protect the rights of the public. The Internet Service Providers' Association (ISPA) also called on the Government to fully meet the requirements of the court's judgement as it consults on additional safeguards to the legislation. If it fails to do so, the ISPA warned this could lead to further legal challenges in the future.
