UK: Invalidating the Snoopers’ Charter?
NOVANEWS
Invalidating the Snoopers’ Charter? Privacy, Surveillance and Britain’s Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Act (DRIPA)
By Dr. Binoy Kampmark
Deemed by the Home Office an exemplar of legislation balancing security and freedoms, the UK Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Act (DRIPA), otherwise known as the Snoopers’ Charter, did not impress the EU Court of Justice. The case had been brought in 2014 by two MPs, David Davis and Tom Watson. Davis had since evacuated from the brief, leaving Watson to savour the proceedings.
The issue pivoted on a few crucial notions behind the requirement that communications service providers retain “traffic data” (fixed and mobile call logs) and mobile phone location data up to 12 months. These were the necessity of such an undert...