UK spy agencies have a long history of collecting the personal data of British citizens, as recent documents show that the government deploys unnecessary mass surveillance.
Privacy International filed a legal challenge against the practice and, to back its case, published a consistent number of files and memos belonging to entities such as the GCHQ, MI6 and MI5. The documents indicate that "bulk personal datasets" (BPD) have been used for some time by intelligence agencies.
This means that security officials had access to various data belonging to citizens, including but not limited to travel records, medical records, call records and financial data. What is worse, the agencies described most of the targets "unlikely to be of intelligence or security interest."
The papers show a worrying trend: spies are sometimes extremely laid back when it comes to data-handling protocols. An internal letter dated 2011 from the Secret Intelligence Agency points out that employees sometimes looked at "details of family members" for their own purposes.
It seems security agents sometimes write service forms on behalf of their colleagues. In order to do it correctly, they tap into the respective people's personal data, but this comprises a privacy risk to other info from the data base.
In theory, all database access is monitored and in order to search a bulk personal dataset, agents must have a proper warrant. However, the problem appears when the rules are blurry, making it unclear which information requires a warrant and which is free for all.
The British establishment publicly admitted the existence of searchable databases in March last year and pointed out that they are not to be called "mass surveillance."
The papers published by Privacy International suggest that ministers from the government were aware of BPD use since the late 90s.
Millie Graham-Wood is a legal councilor at Privacy International and has troubling insight on the matter.
"The intelligence agencies have secretly given themselves access to potentially any and all recorded information about us," she notes. Seeing how individual privacy is one of the hottest topics on media today, the reveal opens more questions than it offers answers.
The Home Office has a different opinion on the matter.
"Bulk powers have been essential to the security and intelligence agencies over the last decade and will be increasingly important in the future," a spokesperson underlines. It continued by making a parallel between the data gathering methods of security agencies and those used by modern businesses to analyze big chunks of data.
A controversial bill addressing the issue is currently in discussion in the British Parliament and in a number of committees. Should it get a positive vote, the bill will guarantee intelligence agencies the power to continue using BPDs and more.
The government claims that the bill will assist the state in its counter-terrorist actions and in curbing organized crime. However, tech companies such as Microsoft, Facebook, Apple and Google rallied up against the bill, affirming that it represents a retrograde movement in civil rights.
Meanwhile, director of Britain's Government Communications Headquarters, Robert Hannigan, urges social networks to join government forces in efforts to combat the hidden threats of terrorism.
Privacy groups went as far as saying that if the law passes, the government will have free reign over spying on its own citizens, unabated.
