Legal

Legal Case Description, Legal Case Files

Press release

Preliminary Statement: Advocate General's Opinion Advises that Mass Surveillance Regime is Unlawful

In today's opinion the Advocate General of the CJEU advises that the UK’s collection of bulk communications data violates EU law and that the French and Belgium data retention schemes also violate EU law.

News & Analysis

New Swedish draft proposal for government hacking powers violates human rights standards

Privacy International calls for the Swedish draft proposal conferring government hacking powers to law enforcement authorities to be rejected.

News & Analysis

Bulk surveillance is unlawful, says the High Court of South Africa

Today, the High Court of South Africa in Pretoria in a historic decision declared that bulk interception by the South African National Communications Centre is unlawful and invalid. The judgment is a powerful rejection of years of secret and unchecked surveillance by South African authorities

News & Analysis

After Watson: Mandatory data retention by telecommunications operators

A recap of what happened in the UK, after CJEU's Tele2/Watson judgment

Long Read

FAQ: Privacy International UK Supreme Court Judgment

Details of case: R (on the application of Privacy International) (Appellant) v Investigatory Powers Tribunal and others (Respondents) [2019] UKSC 22 15 May 2019 The judgment What two questions was the Supreme Court asked to answer? Whether section 67(8) of RIPA 2000 “ousts” the supervisory

Long Read

Q&A: European Court of Human Rights Rules UK Mass Surveillance Laws Violate Rights (from 2018)

Yesterday, the European Court of Human Rights issued its judgement in Big Brother Watch & Others V. the UK. Below, we answer some of the main questions relating to the case. What's the ruling all about? In a nutshell, one of the world's most important courts, the European Court of Human Rights

News & Analysis

Statement: R2K and PI join amaBhungane RICA challenge as amicus curiae

The Right2Know Campaign and Privacy International, represented by the Legal Resources Centre, have applied to be admitted as friends of the court in an ongoing legal challenge to South Africa’s surveillance law, RICA, in the High Court in Pretoria.

Press release

New court judgment finds UK surveillance agencies collected everyone’s communications data unlawfully and in secret, for over a decade

Key points Bulk Communications Data (BCD) collection, commenced in March 1998, unlawful until November 2015 Bulk Personal Datasets regime (BPD), commenced c.2006, unlawful until March 2015 Everyone’s communications data collected unlawfully, in secret and without adequate safeguards until November