Britain’s laws governing the intelligence agencies and mass surveillance require a total overhaul to make them more transparent, comprehensible and up to date, parliament’s intelligence and security committee (ISC) has said in a landmark report prompted by the revelations of Edward Snowden, the former US National Security Agency (NSA) contractor.The 18-month inquiry finds that existing laws are not being broken by the agencies and insists the bulk collection of data by the government does not amount to mass surveillance or a threat to individual privacy.
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/mar/12/uk-surveillance-laws-need-total-overhaul-says-landmark-report-edward-snowdenAlso see:Metadata Should Be Better Protected, U.K. Spy Panel Says
A British parliamentary committee has recommended that information such as web browsing history and location tracking data be given an extra level of protection against government spying.The recommendation came Thursday in a report that reviewed British spying practices revealed by former U.S. National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden.
http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2015/03/12/metadata-should-be-better-protected-u-k-spy-panel-says/British Inquiry Calls for Overhaul of Surveillance Laws but Clears Spy Agencies
Britain’s spy agencies did not break or try to circumvent the law by harvesting huge amounts of electronic data about private communications, but the relevant laws need to be overhauled, a parliamentary oversight panel said on Thursday.The panel of lawmakers was set up to investigate the issue after Edward J. Snowden, the American former intelligence contractor, leaked details about the huge scale of information gathering by agencies in the United States and Britain.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/13/world/europe/british-inquiry-clears-spy-agencies-but-calls-for-overhaul-of-laws.html