for that conclusion were redacted from the open version of the report, but I have
read all the evidence that was placed before the ISC, a good deal of which
concerned the utility of the bulk powers, as well as the full version of the report.
Bulk interception
3.25.
The utility of bulk interception was considered at paras 78-90 of the 2015 ISC
Report, which were written after the ISC had:
“questioned GCHQ in detail as to how useful bulk interception really is, and
sought evidence as to how the capability has been used and why the
intelligence gained could not have been gathered using any other capability”.
3.26.
The ISC concluded that:
“We were surprised to discover that the primary value to GCHQ of bulk
interception was not in reading the actual content of communications,
but in the information associated with those communications. This
included both Communications Data (CD) as described in RIPA (which is
limited to the basic ‘who, when and where’ ...), and other information derived
from the content (which we refer to as Content-Derived Information, or CDI),
including the characteristics of the communication.
...
The examples GCHQ have provided, together with the other evidence we
have taken, have satisfied the Committee that GCHQ’s bulk interception
capability is used primarily to find patterns in, or characteristics of,
online communications which indicate involvement in threats to
national security. The people involved in these communications are
sometimes already known, in which case valuable extra intelligence may be
obtained (e.g. a new person in a terrorist network, a new location to be
monitored, or a new selector to be targeted). In other cases, it exposes
previously unknown individuals or plots that threaten our security which
would not otherwise be detected.
...
We are satisfied that current legislative arrangements and practice are
designed to prevent innocent people’s communications being read. Based on
that understanding, we acknowledge that GCHQ’s bulk interception is a
valuable capability that should remain available to them.”
(emphasis added).
53