Snowden: Extreme Surveillance in the UK Goes Beyond Many Autocracies

The government of the United Kingdom last week, without significant resistance in Parliament or outside of it, adopted a law that grants police and intelligence services the broadest powers for mass surveillance of citizens in the Western world, including the ever-competitive USA.

“The Investigatory Powers Act” legalizes a whole range of tools for interception and storage of information, allowing police and intelligence services to hack into computers and mobile devices without cause or create profiles based on access to massive amounts of personal data, writes the Guardian.

– The UK now has a surveillance law that is more suited to a dictatorship than a democracy. The state has unprecedented powers to monitor and analyze citizens’ communications regardless of whether they are suspected of any criminal activity, commented Jim Killock, Chief Executive of the Open Rights Group.

The adoption of the law was also commented on Twitter by American whistleblower Edward Snowden, who wrote:

– The UK has just legalized the most extreme surveillance in the history of Western democracy. It goes beyond many autocracies.

The UK has just legalized the most extreme surveillance in the history of western democracy. It goes farther than many autocracies. https://t.co/yvmv8CoHrj

— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) November 17, 2016