The Don’t Spy On Us campaign welcomes the speech by Labour’s Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper and her calls for reform of the oversight and legal frameworks for surveillance. Yet, the question for Labour is whether they will back our campaign’s 6 principles for reform.
The Don't Spy On Us campaign is a coalition of UK and international civil liberties groups including: ARTICLE19, Big Brother Watch, English PEN, Open Rights Group, Privacy International.
The Don’t Spy On Us campaign welcomes the speech by Labour’s Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper and her calls for reform of the oversight and legal frameworks for surveillance. She is right to contrast the strength of the political debate in the US with the very muted reaction here in the UK, even though GCHQ has engaged in the very same mass population surveillance that the NSA has.
The question for Labour is whether they will back our campaign’s 6 principles for reform. Independent judges, not the Home Secretary, should sign off on surveillance. Cooper should push for a legal framework where surveillance must be necessary and proportionate - not fishing expeditions through our private data or mass data collection. Without such reform, our rights are not adequately protected.
If Labour recognises that the law is not fit for purpose, then they should not legislate for any increase in surveillance capabilities until a full review has concluded.
The statement has been signed by: ARTICLE19, Big Brother Watch, English PEN, Open Rights Group and Privacy International.
Notes to editors:
The speech by the Shadow Home Secretary was made at a DEMOS event in central London on 3 March 2014.
For more information please contact Mike Harris, Campaign Director
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