United Kingdom spy agency GCHQ is facing a lawsuit filed by three organizations accusing the agency of using online surveillance programs to breach the privacy of tens of millions of people in the UK and Europe.
Big Brother Watch, the Open Rights Group and English PEN, along with German Internet activist Constanze Kurz, have filed papers at the European court of human rights charging GCHQ with the unlawful collection of data - including emails and messages on social media sites - the Guardian reported.
A solicitor from Deighton Pierce Glynn, the firm taking on the case, stated that the legislation surrounding privacy must change.
"We are asking the court to declare that unrestrained surveillance of much of Europe's Internet communications by the UK government, and the outdated regulator system that has permitted this, breach our rights to privacy," Daniel Carey told the Guardian.
Whistleblower Edward Snowden first revealed that GCHQ possesses the ability to gather at least 21 petabytes of data a day - that's equivalent to sending off all the facts in every book in the British Library 192 times, every day. Files that Snowden leaked show GCHQ and its American counterpart the National Security Agency have the ability to collect raw data from cables underneath the sea that lead web activity. Two of these kinds of programs, Prism and Tempore, can grab huge amounts of private data. The two countries can also exchange this data freely.
Director of Big Brother Watch Nick Pickles said that the system had no purpose at this point.
"The laws governing how Internet data is accessed were written when barely anyone had broadband access and were intended to cover old-fashioned copper telephone lines," he told the Guardian. "Parliament did not envisage or intend those laws to permit scooping up details of ever communication we send, including content, so it's absolutely right that GCHQ is held accountable for its actions."
When local news station WRAL approached GCHQ for a comment, they did not respond.
