International Human Rights Group Amnesty International has
filed legal action against the UK government and its intelligence-gathering
agency GCHQ for “highly likely” intercepting calls, emails and other
communications made by the human rights agency. AI speculated that they were an
important source of information especially regarding sensitive topics and
events in the world.
According to Director of Law and Policy for AI Michael
Bochenek, they are deeply troubled with the idea that the communications of
their staff was intercepted. This statement follows the revelation of Edward
Snowden regarding the NSA and GCHQ developing great capabilities to facilitate
espionage in different industries and collecting mobile phone information by
collecting raw data from undersea cables and the servers of Internet companies.
Several other human rights groups, including Liberty, Big
Brother Watch and Privacy International, have also filed legal action against
the UK government.
Eight technology companies, Facebook, Twitter, AOL, Yahoo,
Google, Microsoft, Apple and LinkedIn, had sent an open letter to US President
Barack Obama to protest reforming the existing surveillance laws of the
country. The technology companies’ siding with consumers indicates the lacking
integrity of the technology due to the surveillance activities of the US
government.
Amnesty International had already issued a claim at the Investigatory
Powers Tribunal. They argue that the actions of the UK government was a breach
of the right to privacy and right to freedom of expression.
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