agency does not meet the “in accordance with the law” requirement of
Article 8. That suffices to dispose of the claim.
224.
In addition, the regime continues to fail to meet the “in accordance with
law” requirements despite the amendments to the Interception of
Communications Code of Practice made on 27 January 2016.
225. The Applicants’ argument is developed under the following headings:
(1)
Factual premises
(2)
Minimum safeguards are required where the Government accesses
information intercepted by a foreign intelligence agency
(3)
The UK legal regime on intelligence sharing lacks the required
minimum safeguards.
A.
Factual premises
226.
The nature of modern communication means that many private
communications (and their communications data) between individuals,
even where both reside in the same country, can now be intercepted by
foreign intelligence services in a way that could never have happened in
the past. The technical architecture of the internet directs data to travel
over the least congested, cheapest or most reliable route, not the shortest.
Communications between two people in the UK may be transmitted via
other countries, making them available to multiple intelligence services
along the route. Communications are also transmitted via servers which
may be far away from the people communicating. An email between two
people in London may be transmitted via a server in the US.
Communications, which in the past would have remained entirely within
the UK, can, therefore, be intercepted across the globe.
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