Overlooked - Liberty

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Overlooked: Surveillance and personal privacy in modern Britain i Overlooked: Surveillance and personal privacy in modern Britain The last few years have been a difficult time for the protection of fundamental rights and freedoms in the United Kingdom. The misnamed and misjudged “War on Terror” alongside other authoritarian tendencies going even further back, have fostered a rather cavalier, almost “year nought” approach to long-held values in the oldest unbroken democracy on Earth. At a time, when some people seem ready to compromise over absolute rights such as the prohibition on torture and fair trial rights such as the right to be charged and tried before lengthy imprisonment, how much more vulnerable is the more qualified or balanced right to respect for our personal privacy So at a time of “extraordinary rendition” and arbitrary punishment and detention, why should intrusions into personal privacy matter Isn’t this a somewhat trivial concern in the greater scheme of things The answer lies in the basis of democracy, rights protection and the essence of humanity itself. As proponents of human rights, Liberty believes that every individual human life is so inherently precious, that it is to be treated with dignity and respect and subject to the values of equal treatment and fairness. The very moment that human beings form relationships, families and other associations, let alone complex modern societies, privacy becomes necessarily qualified. Without some proportionate and lawful intrusion, other vital concerns such as free speech, ministerial accountability, tax collection, child protection, let alone public safety would be impossible to pursue. Nonetheless, a society which does not pay sufficient regard to personal privacy is one where dignity, intimacy and trust are fatally undermined. What is family life without a little bit of personal space around the home How do you protect people from degrading treatment (whether in hospital, prison or the home) without paying regard to their privacy How are fair trials possible without confidential legal advice or free elections without secret ballots Equally, whilst free speech, law enforcement and public health are often seen in tension with personal privacy, think of anonymous sources, vulnerable witnesses and terrified patients who may be more likely to seek help if their confidences are safe and perceived to be so.
II Overlooked: Surveillance and personal privacy in modern Britain Notwithstanding, the casual legislative attitude to privacy in recent years, the British public is rather more troubled. A YouGov poll commissioned by Liberty in September of 2007 showed 54 per cent of those questioned did not trust government and other public sector authorities to keep their personal information completely confidential. Forty-eight per cent think that these authorities hold too much of their personal information and 57 per cent think that “the UK has become a surveillance society”. One problem with privacy protection in this country is perhaps that too much has been left to the courts and not enough delivered by our politics. A two-sided litigation battle may be a good protection of last resort for the torture victim or the prisoner detained without law. Our courts have been strong and right in protecting individuals suffering the gravest violations of fundamental rights from policies based on overblown communitarian rhetoric. They have proved less effective in conducting the complex balancing acts necessary when personal privacy is at stake. When a young man appears in court complaining that his DNA is to be held indefinitely on a national database though he has never been charged, let alone convicted of a criminal offence, our courts have been too ready to see this as a matter of irritation rather than intrusion, when set against public interest arguments relating to crime detection. We would argue that the value of privacy is as much a societal interest as public protection. Behind the young man in this example sit thousands of others and an important aspect of the flavour of our democratic society itself. In a legal system essentially without “class actions”, to view the argument as involving a light touch interference with one person versus sweeping societal benefit, is to miss the value of privacy and to set up a David and Goliath struggle with, in the absence of divine intervention, privacy and dignity as inevitable losers. Gareth Crossman is the Policy Director of Liberty (the National Council for Civil Liberties), and one of the foremost experts on the law, ethics and practice of privacy protection in the United Kingdom. My outstanding colleague has completely transformed Liberty’s policy reputation and influence in Westminster, Whitehall, and broader civil society. His background as a solicitor and journalist have produced an ethical brain which neither fears nor indulges the twin evils of legal and technological jargon that stand between so many people and proper debate about how best to protect their personal privacy. This work has been four years in the making. It is reasoned, reasonable and wellresearched. Liberty and the Civil Liberties Trust are proud to present this as a powerful piece of advocacy of a democratic value that has been overlooked for too long. Shami Chakrabarti Director of Liberty October 2007
Page 1 and 2: Overlooked: Surveillance and person
Page 3: Acknowledgements I would like to th
Page 7 and 8: iv Overlooked: Surveillance and per
Page 9 and 10: 2 Overlooked: Surveillance and pers
Page 17 and 18: 10 Overlooked: Surveillance and per
Page 55 and 56:
48 Overlooked: Surveillance and per
Page 57 and 58:
Page 59 and 60:
Page 61 and 62:
Page 63 and 64:
Page 65 and 66:
Page 67 and 68:
Page 69 and 70:
Page 71 and 72:
Page 73 and 74:
Page 75 and 76:
Page 77 and 78:
Page 79 and 80:
Page 81 and 82:
Page 83 and 84:
Page 85 and 86:
Page 87 and 88:
Page 89 and 90:
Page 91 and 92:
Page 93 and 94:
Page 95 and 96:
Page 97 and 98:
Page 99 and 100:
Page 101 and 102:
Page 103 and 104:
Page 105 and 106:
Page 107 and 108:
100 Overlooked: Surveillance and pe
Page 109 and 110:
Page 111 and 112:
Page 113 and 114:
Page 115 and 116:
Page 117 and 118:
Page 119 and 120:
Page 121 and 122:
Page 123 and 124:
Page 125 and 126:
Page 127 and 128:
Page 129 and 130:
Page 131 and 132:
Page 133 and 134:
Page 135 and 136:
show all

Overlooked - Liberty

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?