Spooks may no longer hack multiple devices on a single warrant, High Court rules
The UK High Court has squashed the ability of the security and intelligence services to engage in bulk surveillance based on a single warrant.
The ruling comes after a series of legal challenges by charity and pressure group Privacy International (PI).
The use of bulk surveillance by the intelligence and security services first came to the public attention after the Snowden revelations of 2014, prompting a rearguard effort by the government to shore up the status quo in which officials argued that it would be lawful in principle to use a single warrant to hack every device in a UK city.
However, in 2016 the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT), the independent body that considers complaints about government surveillance, sanctioned the use of hacking warrants.
A subsequent challenge by PI was sidestepped by the Government on a legal technicality, and later some hacking powers were incorporated in the Investigatory Powers Act. But in 2019 the Supreme Court ruled against the Government, saying that the IPT's decision on bulk surveillance should be reviewed by the High Court.
The case was put to the High Court in December and today it arrived at a judgement that means intelligence agencies can no longer rely on general warrants for certain forms of property interference, including hacking.
"The aversion to general warrants is one of the basic principles on which the law of the United Kingdom is founded. As such, it may not be overridden by statute unless the wording of the statute makes clear that Parliament intended to do so," the Court said.
..
Support the originator by clicking the read the rest link below.
