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Three of the UK’s leading privacy groups (Big Brother Watch, Open Rights Group, and English PEN)  and a prominent German internet campaigner (Constanze Kurz) have filed an application at the European Court of Human Rights challenging the UK’s legislation governing the surveillance of communications.
 
The case arises from the recent disclosures by former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden that the government routinely taps, stores and sifts through vast amounts of internet data. It is alleged that the government has used two programmes to access worldwide communications: its own TEMPORA programme, through which the Government Communications Head Quarters  (GCHQ) is alleged to have tapped sub-ocean cables that carry many of the UK and the EU's communications over the internet, and through its receipt of data gathered under the US's PRISM programme.
 
The applicants allege that the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 c. 23 (RIPA) is inadequate to  comply with the requirement under Article 8(2) ECHR that interferences with the right to privacy be  “in accordance with the law”. This is the first case before the European Court concerning the interception of “external communications” under RIPA. 
 
Tom Hickman and Ravi Mehta are acting for the applicants, led by Helen Mountfield QC.

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