CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.7.
(b)
the Communications Data Bill of 2012, which sought to remedy gaps in that
coverage in a number of ways (some of which had been prefigured under the
previous Government). It was considered in draft by two parliamentary
committees, but never introduced to Parliament as a consequence of
disagreements within the Coalition;
(c)
the publication since 2013 of a selection of documents, removed without
authorisation from the US National Security Agency [NSA] by the contractor
Edward Snowden and purporting to describe various capabilities of the NSA
and other agencies, including the UK’s Government Communications
Headquarters [GCHQ], [the Snowden Documents];12 and
(d)
the various consequences of publication of the Snowden Documents,
including:
disquiet and suspicion among sections of the public in the UK and other
countries, prompted in particular by allegations of bulk collection and
analysis of data on a previously unreported scale;
a new emphasis by service providers on customer privacy, reflected in a
quickening of the trend towards universal encryption and a reduction in
voluntary cooperation with foreign governments;
pleas from law enforcement and security and intelligence agencies for better
cooperation from overseas service providers, and better means of
enforcement against them; and
unprecedented levels of activity from the UK’s supervision mechanisms, in
particular the Investigatory Powers Tribunal [IPT], Interception of
Communications Commissioner’s Office [IOCCO] and Intelligence and
Security Committee of Parliament [ISC], each of which has examined and
reported on allegations arising out of the Snowden Documents.
The debate is thus a double-jointed one, featuring arguments for more and for less
capability, for more safeguards and for the removal of limitations that serve no useful
purpose. If it is at times bitterly contested, that is because both sides (with
unquestionable sincerity) see their position as under threat:
(a)
12
Privacy advocates emphasise the growing volume of electronic
communications, as well as their quality, and extended techniques for the
gathering and analysis of them, as lives are increasingly lived online. They
campaign for reduced powers, or at any rate enhanced safeguards, to protect
the individual from the spectre of a surveillance state.
A catalogue of the Snowden Documents placed in the public domain is maintained by the Lawfare
Institute: http://www.lawfareblog.com/catalog-of-the-snowden-revelations/. See also the Snowden
Digital Surveillance Archive: https://snowdenarchive.cjfe.org/greenstone/cgi-bin/library.cgi and The
Electronic Frontier Foundation: https://www.eff.org/nsa-spying/nsadocs.
17