Liberty launches judicial review challenge over Investigatory Powers Act

Liberty has commenced a judicial review challenge over what it claims is the Government’s “extreme mass surveillance regime” in the Investigatory Powers Act.

The human rights organisation intends to argue that the following powers breach the British people’s rights:

• Bulk and ‘thematic’ hacking – “the Act lets police and agencies access, control and alter electronic devices like computers, phones and tabl ets on an industrial scale, regardless of whether their owners are suspected of involvement in crime – leaving them vulnerable to further attack by hackers”.
• Bulk interception of communications content – “the Act lets the state read texts, online instant messages and emails, and listen in on calls en masse, without requiring suspicion of criminal activity”.
• Bulk acquisition of people’s communications data and internet history – “the Act forces communications companies and service providers to retain and hand over records of everybody’s emails, phone calls and texts and entire web browsing history to state agencies to store, data-mine and profile at its will”.
• Bulk personal datasets – “the Act lets agencies acquire and link vast databases held by the public or private sector. These contain details on religion, ethnic origin, sexuality, political leanings and health problems, potentially on the entire population – and are ripe for abuse and discrimination.”

Liberty said it had yet to receive a formal response from the Government to its pre-action protocol letter of 20 December 2016.

The challenge is being crowdfunded via CrowdJustice, with Liberty raising more than £50,000 in less than a week. It had initially only planned to raise £10,000.

Silkie Carlo, Policy Officer at Liberty, said: “This is our first step towards getting rid of the most intrusive surveillance regime of any democracy in history.

“The powers we’re fighting undermine everything that’s core to our freedom and democracy – our right to protest, to express ourselves freely and to a fair trial, our free press, privacy and cybersecurity. But with so much public support behind us, we’re hopeful we will be able to persuade our courts to restrain the more authoritarian tendencies of this Government.”

Liberty has instructed Bhatt Murphy Solicitors in this case.