Government To Defend Surveillance Measures in EU Court

28 January 2014

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European Court for Human Rights — European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg France

Government Ministers have been ordered by the European Court of Human Rights to show how their mass surveillance programs are in keeping with the right to privacy under article 8 of the European convention.

Submissions to the court in Strasbourg will begin this May, following complaints from civil liberties groups that the UK Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) have broken the law in their disregard of personal privacy and civil liberties.

The case before the European Court of Human Rights highlights growing concern that Britain is turning into a police state in which citizens are under continual surveillance.

This is not the first time the Government has been accused of breaking the law by spying on her own people. In 2012, Privacy International accused the Government of allowing companies to sell surveillance systems to repressive regimes in direct violation of the 2002 Export Control Act.

In the Footsteps of Tony Blair

640_surveillance-camera — There is one surveillance camera for every 11 people in Britain.

During the Tony Blair years (1997–2007) the precedent was set for Brits to surrender substantial liberties for the promise of increased security.

While the opposition heavily criticized the Labour Government for its totalitarian measures, once in power the Tory Party continued along the same trajectory set by Tony Blair, with significant increases.

Significant Increase

The UK is now one of the world’s leaders when it comes to surveillance cameras, with one surveillance camera for every 11 people in Britain.

The full extent of Government spying surfaced last June when the UK commissioner published their report of communication interceptions in 2012. The official report showed that Government surveillance has significantly increased from previous years, so that the UK now ranks third in terms of the vigorousness of domestic spying. Journalist Ryan Gallagher has summarized the data and produced graphs showing the full extent of this increase in surveillance. Gallagher noted that

In 2012, the report shows, there were a record 570,135 authorisations for police and other agencies to obtain so-called “communications data.” This can include subscriber information about suspects’ phone and email accounts, as well as call and email records showing who a suspect is phoning/emailing and when. It does not include the actual content of the communication.

Notably, the 570,135 figure is a 15 percent increase on the figure for 2011 and amounts to about an average 1,562 communications data authorisations every day. In addition, the commissioner noted in his report that “979 communications data errors” were made by authorities in cases involving the wrongful collection of data from innocent individuals. The botched surveillance had serious ramifications, with six members of the public “wrongly detained / accused of crimes” as a consequence.

Edward Snowden revealed that the UK made a secret deal with the US to allow the NSA to retain personal information about Britons.

This does not even include the massive array of ‘legitimate’ spying tools that are available to firms throughout the UK.

Secret Deal with USA

As if their own totalitarian measures were not enough, the UK made a secret deal with the US in 2007 to allow the NSA to retain personal information about Britons—such as cell phone numbers, emails, fax numbers—that was previously off-limits.

The contents of this deal were leaked to the public last November by whistle-blower Edward Snowden.

While these increases in government surveillance are being enacted in the name of public safety, many people fear that Britain may be sleepwalking into a police state. When combined with the increase of censorship against Christians who preach the gospel and a worrying trend towards thought control, these measures could soon threaten our ability to honour God and preach the Gospel.

Confusing Government with God

The normalization of the modern surveillance state in the West arises from the universal human temptation to surrender liberties for the promise of increased security, and to impute maternal characteristics to the state as a result.

As Christians we recognize that some degree of public watchfulness is necessary if law-makers are to fulfil their God-given vocation of punishing evil-doers (Rom 13:4). However, what tends to happen when a society turns away from Christianity is that the state displaces God and begins ascribing to itself God-like attributes, including the attribute of omnipresence. Until the digital revolution, the impulse for the state to achieve omnipresence was limited by the natural constraints of time and place. However, what modern computer technology has brought has been an almost horizon-less vista of opportunities to achieve a God-like omnipresence.