(a) operates powerful processing systems (filters), that undertake complex
processing and apply sophisticated rules to choose which data to collect and
which to reject (or “defeat”), both at the point of initial collection and at other
stages in the processing chain; and
(b) uses intelligent analytic techniques to use the resultant data as effectively as
possible.
We saw no sign that such efforts are counter-productive, or that they result from
an over-close relationship with large contractors. On the contrary, it was the
evidence of Dr Pepper and Mr Wells that chimed with what we heard consistently
from the 55 people we met at GCHQ, including both senior management and
analysts with first-hand experience of the operations they were describing, and
with what we read in its internal documentation.
3.77.
That said, William Binney is plainly correct in his central observation: that
operational effectiveness is served by reducing as rapidly as possible the volume
of material that it is necessary to analyse. It is important for the efficiency of its
operations as well as for reasons of privacy that GCHQ continues to refine its
techniques for the focused selection of meaningful data from the flow around the
world, a theme to which we revert at 9.23-9.24 below.
(8) Assessments of the European Court of Human Rights
3.78.
The lawfulness of bulk interception was considered by the ECtHR in the cases of
Weber174 and Liberty,175 discussed in AQOT 5.32-5.34. The ECtHR in Weber
commented that so-called “strategic monitoring” was not in itself a
disproportionate interference with the right to privacy,176 but was not called upon
in either case to evaluate the operational case, and lacked in any event the
classified basis for doing so.
174
175
176
177
178
179
3.79.
Since AQOT was published in mid-2015, two further cases have been decided
by the ECtHR: Zakharov177 (a case on targeted interception, like the earlier
Kennedy);178 and Szabó and Vissy (2016).179
3.80.
Both cases resulted in findings of violation: but the ECtHR expressed no doubts
as to the utility of bulk powers. Indeed on the contrary, the Court stated in Szabó
and Vissy that:
Application no. 54930/00 Weber v Germany (2006).
Application no. 58243/00 Liberty v UK (2008).
At paras 114-117.
Application no. 47143/06 Zakharov v Russia (2015).
Application no. 26839/05 Kennedy v UK (2010).
Application no. Szabó and Vissy v Hungary (2016).
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