Privacy Watchdog to Sue UK Surveillance Agency

Privacy International is reported to have filed a legal complaint against the UK’s Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) over surveillance. The outfit complained that the UK spooks had installed malware on millions of devices without their owners’ knowledge and permission. The complaint states that the GCHQ uses “surveillance techniques incompatible with democratic principles and human rights standards”.



The human rights outfit didn’t like that the agency installed hacking software like Nosey Smurf, Tracker Smurf, and Foggybottom on PCs, mobiles, and webcams in order to secretly record what users do. Privacy International pointed out that it was very intrusive to allow the agency to extract a huge amount of data, both current and historical, much of which people may never want to share, and to turn people’s own devices against them by using them for video and audio surveillance.

Privacy International added that the actions of GCHQ were even more intrusive due to the amount of data generated and stored by PCs and mobile devices. The complaint comes after the papers leaked by Edward Snowden were released in public.

The UK-based watchdog compiled a 21-page complaint stating that the techniques allegedly used by the Government Communications Headquarters violate European human rights legislation. Of course, the privacy outfit demands that the alleged practice be stopped. The outfit’s deputy director compared the hacking programs being undertaken by the surveillance agency with the police entering people’s homes to rummage through their filing cabinets, diaries, journals and correspondence, before planting bugs in every room.