A UK court has dealt a winning hand to privacy advocates \u2014 and a blow to the mass surveillance state \u2014 through its ruling on the controversial Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Act (DRIPA).<\/p>\n
The ruling, which was issued by three appellate judges, said that DRIPA<\/a> was \u201cinconsistent with EU law\u201d because it failed to safeguard citizens\u2019 phone records and internet browsing history from unauthorized access by police officers, according to a report in The Guardian.<\/p>\n DRIPA had been passed as \u201cemergency legislation\u201d in 2014 after just a single day of parliamentary debate, and it laid the foundation for its eventual replacement, the 2016 Investigatory Powers Act.<\/p>\n Nicknamed the \u201csnooper\u2019s charter,\u201d the Investigatory Powers Act greatly expanded the government\u2019s ability to spy on its citizens without a warrant, even for purposes other than to solve crimes. What caused much. public outrage was the fact that internet records would need to be stored, and made available to a whole host of government agencies \u2013 including many non-law enforcement arms. NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden indicted it as \u201cthe most extreme surveillance in the history of western democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n The UK has just legalized the most extreme surveillance in the history of western democracy. It goes farther than many autocracies. https:\/\/t.co\/yvmv8CoHrj<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Edward Snowden (@Snowden) November 17, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\nThe Snooper\u2019s Charter tried to institute a mass surveillance state<\/h2>\n
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