GCHQ surveillance programme legal 'in principle'

The Investigatory Powers Tribunal has ruled that "in principle" GCHQ's Tempora mass surveillance programme, under which undersea cables were monitored, is legal. No definitive judgement can be made as the UK government refuses to publicly acknowledge the existence of Tempora.

The primarily secret court was overseeing the case brought by Amnesty International, Privacy International and others against GCHQ. As the government has the right to "neither confirm nor deny" the existence of the programme the tribunal has been forced to consider its hypothetical existence in its ruling. To do this it looked at whether mass surveillance of all fibre optic cables would be legal. The public was first made aware of Tempora in top-secret documents released by whistleblower Edward Snowden.

On the basis of secret government policies the tribunal rules that should this surveillance be going on, it would be lawful. The judges job was not to disclose whether such surveillance was happening or to confirm details of Tempora. They worked purely on the basis that the alleged activity undertaken by GCHQ, as detailed by Snowden, might have taken place -- might being the operative word.

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-12/05/ipt-ruling-gchq-tempora