EU court delivers blow to UK's 'snooper's charter'

Britain's new Investigatory Powers Bill, dubbed the"snooper'scharter"for its sweeping nature of access to the British public's internet history and passed into law by the British Parliament last month, has been deemed illegal by the European Union's highest court.
"General and indiscriminate retention" of emails and electronic communications by governments is illegal, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled this week.
Only targeted interception of traffic and location data in order to combat serious crime - including terrorism - is justified, according to a long-awaited decision by the ECJ in Luxembourg.
The UK government said it is "disappointed" with the judgment and plans to defend the new law robustly in the Court of Appeal.

"Given the importance of communications data to preventing and detecting crime, we will ensure plans are in place so that the police and other public authorities can continue to acquire such data in a way that is consistent with EU law and our obligation to protect the public," a UK Home Office statement said.
The case will now return to the UK Court of Appeal to be resolved in terms of UK legislation. The aim of going to Luxembourg was to clarify EU law on surveillance.

As Britain is still a member of the EU until it officially triggers Brexit negotiations under Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, it is bound by the judgments of the ECJ.

"The fact that the data is retained without the users of electronic communications services being informed of the fact is likely to cause the persons concerned to feel that their private lives are the subject of constant surveillance. Consequently, only the objective of fighting serious crime is capable of justifying such interference," a summary of the ECJ ruling said.
The challenge was initially championed by David Davis, then a back bench Conservative party MP but now the Brexit Secretary in British Prime Minister Theresa May's Cabinet.
He had withdrawn from the case following his ministerial appointment.
The controversial "snooper's charter" requires communications companies to retain data for 12 months.

Tom Watson, Labour's deputy leader, who is among those bringing the case, said: "This ruling shows it's counter-productive to rush new laws through Parliament without a proper scrutiny."
Lawyers for the UK government maintained that intercepted communications have been at the heart of every terrorist case investigated by police and the security services in recent years.