GCHQ breached fundamental human rights by intercepting and harvesting vast amounts of communications from British citizens and people all over the world, the European Court of Human Rights ruled today. Revelations by former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden showed that GCHQ and its U.S. counterpart were sucking up vast amounts of communications from across the world, including on their own citizens. The British government argued that bulk interception was critical for national security and had enabled it to uncover grave threats. Essentially, London argued that it had to harvest vast amounts of data to find the threats. The court ruled that there had been no violation of rights by requests for intercepted material from foreign intelligence agencies.

Source: Daily Mail May 25, 2021 19:48 UTC