The Investigatory Powers Tribunal ( IPT ) is a first-instance tribunal and superior court of record in the United Kingdom . It is primarily an inquisitorial court .
136-578: It hears complaints about surveillance by public bodies, primarily the intelligence services . It does not hear complaints about surveillance by private bodies. It is a part of the Home Office but operates independently. It is also separate from the administration of the rest of the UK tribunals system. The IPT was established by the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA 2000), replacing
272-613: A Senator of the College of Justice , as must be one other Member. There must also be a Member from Northern Ireland. As of 2023, the Tribunal Members are: Members are usually appointed for a term of five years, after which they are eligible for reappointment. The Tribunal Members are assisted in their work by a Secretariat, who provide administrative support for the Tribunal including investigating complaints as directed by
408-587: A "demise" of margin of appreciation). Narrowing margin of appreciation is a target of criticism for those who believe that the ECtHR should minimize its role, especially from the United Kingdom. Proponents of a stronger recognition of margin of appreciation cite local conceptions of human rights, specific to the context of each country and its culture, and the risk of handing down judgements that lack local cultural and grassroots legitimacy. Critics argue that
544-578: A $ 350 million grant towards the development of the Domain Awareness System , which is an interconnected system of sensors including 18,000 CCTV cameras used for continual surveillance of the city by both police officers and artificial intelligence systems . In the United Kingdom , the vast majority of video surveillance cameras are not operated by government bodies, but by private individuals or companies, especially to monitor
680-428: A Tribunal Member. The Secretariat comprises a Head of Secretariat who is responsible for the effective and efficient management of processes, a Tribunal Secretary, Deputy Tribunal Secretary, a Business Manager and a case-working team. In The National Council of Civil Liberties et al v Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs , following the global surveillance disclosures by Edward Snowden in 2013,
816-554: A bank machine, payment by credit card, use of a phone card, call from home, checked out library book, rented video, or otherwise complete recorded transaction generates an electronic record. Public records—such as birth, court, tax and other records—are increasingly being digitized and made available online. In addition, due to laws like CALEA , web traffic and online purchases are also available for profiling. Electronic record-keeping makes data easily collectable, storable, and accessible—so that high-volume, efficient aggregation and analysis
952-731: A centralized database and monitoring station, which will, upon completion of the project, contain a picture of the face of every person in China: over 1.3 billion people. Lin Jiang Huai, the head of China's "Information Security Technology" office (which is in charge of the project), credits the surveillance systems in the United States and the U.K. as the inspiration for what he is doing with the Golden Shield Project. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)
1088-471: A common belief that monitoring can increase productivity, it can also create consequences such as increasing chances of deviant behavior and creating punishments that are not equitable to their actions. Additionally, monitoring can cause resistance and backlash because it insinuates an employer's suspicion and lack of trust. Data mining is the application of statistical techniques and programmatic algorithms to discover previously unnoticed relationships within
1224-454: A complex mathematical algorithm that is unique to an individual phone, and is inaccessible to Apple. The encryption feature on the iPhone 6 has drawn criticism from FBI director James B. Comey and other law enforcement officials since even lawful requests to access user content on the iPhone 6 will result in Apple supplying "gibberish" data that requires law enforcement personnel to either break
1360-680: A database known as " Pinwale ", which stores and indexes large numbers of emails of both American citizens and foreigners. Additionally, the NSA runs a program known as PRISM , which is a data mining system that gives the United States government direct access to information from technology companies . Through accessing this information, the government is able to obtain search history, emails, stored information, live chats, file transfers, and more. This program generated huge controversies in regards to surveillance and privacy, especially from U.S. citizens. The official and unofficial tapping of telephone lines
1496-624: A global standard for the first time, the declaration was essentially aspirational, and had no judicial enforcement mechanism. In 1949, the twelve member states of the newly created Council of Europe began work on the European Convention on Human Rights , drawing inspiration from the rights already set out in the Declaration, but with the crucial difference that—for the European countries which chose to sign up to it—there would be
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#17327725162361632-645: A history of disregard for the principles of the Convention, Russia was expelled from the Council of Europe .) Other countries have also moved to restrict the binding nature of the ECtHR judgments, subject to the countries' own constitutional principles. In 2004, the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany ruled that judgements handed down by the ECtHR are not always binding on German courts. The Italian Constitutional Court also restricts
1768-571: A judicial mechanism to ensure that they respected the basic rights of their citizens. The court was established on 21 January 1959 on the basis of Article 19 of the European Convention on Human Rights when its first members were elected by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe . Initially, access to the court was restricted by the European Commission of Human Rights , abolished in 1998. The court kept
1904-615: A law declaring it legal to overrule judgements from the ECtHR, codifying an earlier Russian Constitutional Court decision which ruled that Russia could refuse to recognize an ECtHR decision if it conflicted with the Constitution of Russia , and in 2020 Russia made constitutional amendments stipulating that the Russian Constitution supersedes international law. (In March 2022, due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and
2040-497: A legal requirement". After the preliminary finding of admissibility the court examines the case by hearing representations from both parties. The court may undertake any investigation it deems necessary on the facts or issues raised in the application and contracting states are required to provide the court with all necessary assistance for this purpose. The European Convention on Human Rights requires all hearings to be in public, unless there are exceptional circumstances justifying
2176-533: A low profile during its first years and did not accumulate much case law, first finding a violation in Neumeister v Austria (1968). The convention charges the court with ensuring the observance of the engagement undertaken by the contracting states in relation to the convention and its protocols, that is ensuring the enforcement and implementation of the European Convention in the member states of
2312-413: A mobile phone (and thus the person carrying it) can be determined easily even when the phone is not being used, using a technique known as multilateration to calculate the differences in time for a signal to travel from the cell phone to each of several cell towers near the owner of the phone. The legality of such techniques has been questioned in the United States, in particular whether a court warrant
2448-519: A party: There are also a number of inconclusive outcomes, which make up the vast majority of outcomes: The IPT has powers of the High Court when making judgments. As such, when finding in favour of the complainant it can: It does not normally award legal costs to either party. It also does not order remedies in any other outcome. The Tribunal is a judicial body, entirely independent of Parliament and HM Government . Its judicial independence
2584-413: A person's emotional state based on an analysis of their facial expressions, how fast they are talking, the tone and pitch of their voice, their posture, and other behavioral traits. This might be used for instance to see if a person's behavior is suspect (looking around furtively, "tense" or "angry" facial expressions, waving arms, etc.). A more recent development is DNA profiling , which looks at some of
2720-604: A person's facial features to accurately identify them, usually from surveillance video. Both the Department of Homeland Security and DARPA are heavily funding research into facial recognition systems. The Information Processing Technology Office ran a program known as Human Identification at a Distance which developed technologies that are capable of identifying a person at up to 500 ft (150 m) by their facial features. Another form of behavioral biometrics, based on affective computing , involves computers recognizing
2856-450: A population of approximately 700 million, and operates with an annual budget of approximately 500 million euros . The organisation is distinct from the 27-nation European Union (EU), although it is sometimes confused with it, partly because the EU has adopted the original flag of Europe created by the Council of Europe in 1955, as well as the anthem of Europe . No country has ever joined
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#17327725162362992-507: A public hearing, which is transmitted as a webcast on the ECHR site . After the public hearing, the judges deliberate. The court's chamber decides both issues regarding admissibility and merits of the case. Generally, both these issues are dealt with in the same judgment. In final judgments the court makes a declaration that a contracting state has violated the convention, and may order the contracting state to pay material and/or moral damages and
3128-670: A searchable database , and by video analysis software (such as VIRAT and HumanID ). The amount of footage is also drastically reduced by motion sensors which record only when motion is detected. With cheaper production techniques, surveillance cameras are simple and inexpensive enough to be used in home security systems, and for everyday surveillance. Video cameras are one of the most common methods of surveillance. As of 2016, there are about 350 million surveillance cameras worldwide. About 65% of these cameras are installed in Asia. The growth of CCTV has been slowing in recent years. In 2018, China
3264-484: A similar case. Protocol 11 was designed to deal with the backlog of pending cases by establishing the court and its judges as a full-time institution, by simplifying the procedure and reducing the length of proceedings. However, as the workload of the court continued to increase, the contracting states agreed that further reforms were necessary and in May 2004, the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers adopted Protocol 14 to
3400-430: A sitting judge's term has expired or when a new state accedes to the convention. The retiring age of judges is 70, but they may continue to serve as judges until a new judge is elected or until the cases in which they sit have come to an end. Judges perform their duties in an individual capacity and are prohibited from having any institutional or similar ties with the state in respect of which they were elected. To ensure
3536-401: Is a technology that measures and analyzes human physical and/or behavioral characteristics for authentication, identification, or screening purposes. Examples of physical characteristics include fingerprints, DNA, and facial patterns. Examples of mostly behavioral characteristics include gait (a person's manner of walking) or voice. Facial recognition is the use of the unique configuration of
3672-481: Is able to install software, such as the FBI's Magic Lantern and CIPAV , on a computer system, they can easily gain unauthorized access to this data. Such software could be installed physically or remotely. Another form of computer surveillance, known as van Eck phreaking , involves reading electromagnetic emanations from computing devices in order to extract data from them at distances of hundreds of meters. The NSA runs
3808-593: Is an example of such a network. One common form of surveillance is to create maps of social networks based on data from social networking sites such as Facebook , MySpace , Twitter as well as from traffic analysis information from phone call records such as those in the NSA call database , and others. These social network "maps" are then data mined to extract useful information such as personal interests, friendships & affiliations, wants, beliefs, thoughts, and activities. Many U.S. government agencies such as
3944-645: Is enshrined in law by the Constitutional Reform Act 2005 . No organisation can intervene in the IPT's investigations or influence its decisions. The IPT is administered separately from the rest of the UK tribunal system, and is not under the leadership of the Senior President of Tribunals . This is both because it deals primarily with issues of national security and because its inquisitorial system differs from most tribunals. It exempt from
4080-553: Is funding a research project called Combat Zones That See that will link up cameras across a city to a centralized monitoring station, identify and track individuals and vehicles as they move through the city, and report "suspicious" activity (such as waving arms, looking side-to-side, standing in a group, etc.). At Super Bowl XXXV in January 2001, police in Tampa, Florida, used Identix's facial recognition software, FaceIt, to scan
4216-461: Is incompatibility with other functions. They cannot be revoked by their state of origin, but only by decision of their peers, taken by a two-thirds majority and for serious reasons. The court has jurisdiction amongst the member states of the Council of Europe which includes almost every country in Europe except for Belarus , Kazakhstan , Kosovo , Russia and Vatican City . The jurisdiction of
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4352-405: Is installing automated facial recognition and license plate recognition devices in its squad cars, and providing handheld face scanners, which officers will use to identify people while on patrol. Facial thermographs are in development, which allow machines to identify certain emotions in people such as fear or stress, by measuring the temperature generated by blood flow to different parts of
4488-646: Is necessary because of the confidentiality of the evidence being considered. The Counsel to the Tribunal assists the IPT in closed sessions to ensure that points of law or other matters that may have been advanced by the complainants are fully considered. However, the IPT may also facilitate adversarial open sessions by assuming facts, allowing for advocates to debate over points of law without disclosing confidential evidence. Since 2003, it has tried to sit in public where possible. It may make interim orders to prevent activities from continuing when investigations are taking place. The IPT has two outcomes that 'favour'
4624-422: Is necessary for the court to stay relevant and its rulings to adapt to the actual conditions, such interpretations are labeled overreach or judicial activism by critics. The Court uses the doctrine of margin of appreciation , referring to the member states' rights to set moral standards within reason. Over time, the court has narrowed the margin of appreciation (to the point, according to some commentators, of
4760-463: Is not institutionally related to the European Court of Human Rights: the two courts are related to distinct organizations. However, since all EU states are members of the Council of Europe and so are parties of the Convention on Human Rights, there are concerns about consistency in case law between the two courts. The CJEU refers to the case law of the European Court of Human Rights and treats
4896-539: Is possible at significantly lower costs. European Court of Human Rights The European Court of Human Rights ( ECtHR ), also known as the Strasbourg Court , is an international court of the Council of Europe which interprets the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The court hears applications alleging that a contracting state has breached one or more of the human rights enumerated in
5032-404: Is required. Records for one carrier alone (Sprint), showed that in a given year federal law enforcement agencies requested customer location data 8 million times. In response to customers' privacy concerns in the post Edward Snowden era, Apple's iPhone 6 has been designed to disrupt investigative wiretapping efforts. The phone encrypts e-mails, contacts, and photos with a code generated by
5168-626: Is that it can unjustifiably violate people's privacy and is often criticized by civil liberties activists. Democracies may have laws that seek to restrict governmental and private use of surveillance, whereas authoritarian governments seldom have any domestic restrictions. Espionage is by definition covert and typically illegal according to the rules of the observed party, whereas most types of surveillance are overt and are considered legal or legitimate by state authorities. International espionage seems to be common among all types of countries. The vast majority of computer surveillance involves
5304-399: Is the monitoring of a person or group's behavior by a corporation. The data collected is most often used for marketing purposes or sold to other corporations, but is also regularly shared with government agencies. It can be used as a form of business intelligence , which enables the corporation to better tailor their products and/or services to be desirable by their customers. Although there is
5440-679: Is widespread. In the United States for instance, the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) requires that all telephone and VoIP communications be available for real-time wiretapping by Federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies. Two major telecommunications companies in the U.S.— AT&T Inc. and Verizon —have contracts with the FBI, requiring them to keep their phone call records easily searchable and accessible for Federal agencies, in return for $ 1.8 million per year. Between 2003 and 2005,
5576-538: Is working on plans to build up a fleet of surveillance UAVs ranging from micro-aerial vehicles to full-size drones , to be used by police forces throughout the U.K. In addition to their surveillance capabilities, MAVs are capable of carrying tasers for " crowd control ", or weapons for killing enemy combatants. Programs such as the Heterogeneous Aerial Reconnaissance Team program developed by DARPA have automated much of
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5712-558: The Belgian Linguistic Case . Critics maintain that proportionality engenders largely subjective rulings: a judge's personal preferences and beliefs may color their perceptions of rights' relative importance. The Court has established certain formulas to ensure consistency across such decisions, but these guidelines cover only a small fraction of its case law. The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU)
5848-817: The Crown Court or the Upper Tribunal . The IPA 2016 allows for the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland , with the permission of the Northern Ireland Assembly , to use the Court of Appeal of Northern Ireland instead of its English equivalent when in Northern Ireland. However, as of 2021 this has not happened. The Supreme Court found in R (Privacy International) v Investigatory Powers Tribunal that errors in law made by
5984-733: The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the National Security Agency (NSA), and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) are investing heavily in research involving social network analysis. The intelligence community believes that the biggest threat to U.S. power comes from decentralized, leaderless, geographically dispersed groups of terrorists , subversives , extremists , and dissidents . These types of threats are most easily countered by finding important nodes in
6120-466: The European Convention on Human Rights following the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 led to a sharp increase in applications filed in the court. The efficiency of the court was threatened seriously by the large accumulation of pending applications. In 1999, 8,400 applications were allocated to be heard. In 2003, 27,200 cases were filed and the number pending rose to approximately 65,000. In 2005,
6256-605: The Freedom of Information Act 2000 . The vast majority of cases have an outcome where neither side 'wins' as such. In 2021: The RIPA did not originally provide an avenue for appeal, other than to take the case to the European Court of Human Rights . However, this was amended by the Investigatory Powers Act 2016 to introduce appeals to: This gives it senior court status, equivalent to for example
6392-535: The Information Awareness Office , or companies such as Verint , and Narus , which search for certain words or phrases, to decide whether to dedicate a human agent to the call. Law enforcement and intelligence services in the United Kingdom and the United States possess technology to activate the microphones in cell phones remotely, by accessing phones' diagnostic or maintenance features in order to listen to conversations that take place near
6528-581: The NSA has been taking advantage of this ambiguity in the law by collecting metadata on "at least hundreds of millions" of "incidental" targets from around the world. The NSA uses an analytic tool known as CO-TRAVELER in order to track people whose movements intersect and to find any hidden connections with persons of interest. The Snowden leaks have also revealed that the British Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) can access information collected by
6664-458: The NSA , the FBI and the now-defunct Information Awareness Office , to develop, purchase, implement, and operate systems such as Carnivore , NarusInsight , and ECHELON to intercept and analyze all of this data to extract only the information which is useful to law enforcement and intelligence agencies. Computers can be a surveillance target because of the personal data stored on them. If someone
6800-517: The NSA call database , and extract "communities of interest"—groups of people who call each other regularly, or groups that regularly visit certain sites on the Internet. AT&T originally built the system to develop "marketing leads", but the FBI has regularly requested such information from phone companies such as AT&T without a warrant, and, after using the data, stores all information received in its own databases, regardless of whether or not
6936-538: The text of the Convention "must be interpreted in the light of present-day conditions" rather than the intent of its framers . In Mamatkulov and Askarov v. Turkey (2008), the court emphasized that it "upholds individual rights as practical and effective, rather than theoretical and illusory protections". Another key part of the Court's interpretation is the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties . One area that
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#17327725162367072-681: The " Bosphorus Presumption ", a policy of conditional deference articulated in Bosphorus Hava Yollari Turizm ve Ticaret Anonim Sirketi v Ireland . Because the CJEU represents a "comparable" human rights enforcement mechanism, the ECtHR may presume "that a State has not departed from the requirements of the Convention when it does no more than implement legal obligations flowing from its [EU] membership." This presumption may be refuted in any particular instances where protections of Convention rights are "manifestly deficient." Most of
7208-615: The 1950s. The United States Department of Homeland Security is in the process of testing UAVs to patrol the skies over the United States for the purposes of critical infrastructure protection , border patrol, " transit monitoring ", and general surveillance of the U.S. population. Miami-Dade police department ran tests with a vertical take-off and landing UAV from Honeywell , which is planned to be used in SWAT operations. Houston's police department has been testing fixed-wing UAVs for use in "traffic control". The United Kingdom , as well,
7344-474: The Convention on Human Rights as if it were part of the EU's legal system since it forms part of the legal principles of the EU member states. Even though its member states are party to the convention, the European Union itself is not a party, as it did not have competence to do so under previous treaties. However, EU institutions are bound under Article 6 of the EU Treaty of Nice to respect human rights under
7480-465: The Convention, on the basis of Protocol No. 16. This mechanism aims to foster dialogue between national courts and the ECtHR, thereby preempting Convention violations and minimizing the latter's caseload. Unlike preliminary references under EU law, advisory opinions may only be solicited by the "highest courts and tribunals" of a member state. Although Article 5 of Protocol No. 16 states that "Advisory opinions shall not be binding," they nonetheless enter
7616-449: The Convention. Despite the European Union's failure to accede to the Convention, the ECtHR has consistently held that member states are bound by ECHR guarantees even when executing and implementing EU law. Nevertheless, the Court has simultaneously sought to promote international cooperation and avoid interfering in internal Union affairs. It has balanced the conflicting aims of fostering European harmony and avoiding ECHR circumvention via
7752-488: The Council of Europe. The European Court of Human Rights, which enforces the European Convention on Human Rights, is the best known body of the Council of Europe. The Council of Europe (CoE) ( French : Conseil de l'Europe , CdE) is an international organisation founded in the wake of World War II to uphold human rights , democracy and the rule of law in Europe . Founded in 1949, it now has 46 member states, covering
7888-551: The ECHR, and that its activities were compliant with Articles 8 (' right to privacy ') and 10 ( 'freedom of expression' ). However, in February 2015, the tribunal refined its earlier judgement and ruled that aspects of the data-sharing arrangement that allowed UK Intelligence services to request data from the US surveillance programmes Prism and Upstream did contravene the ECHR and as such were illegal between at least 2007, when Prism
8024-604: The ECtHR has chosen to only impose them in cases concerning imminent danger to life and limb. Such measures are often deployed to prevent extradition or expulsion to countries with inadequate human rights guarantees, whereas requests to prevent potentially damaging publications or property seizures seldom elicit similar responses. The court may award pecuniary or non-pecuniary damages , called "just satisfaction". The awards are typically small in comparison to verdicts by national courts and rarely exceed £1,000 plus legal costs. Non-pecuniary damages are more closely correlated to what
8160-458: The ECtHR's case law and may be enforced through later individual complaints if contravened. ECtHR rulings have erga omnes effects (that is, they are potentially binding on all member states), because the court "determines issues on public-policy grounds in the common interest, thereby extending human rights jurisprudence throughout the community of European Convention States", although erga omnes effect "is not regarded by all States Parties as
8296-499: The EHCR has claimed that such consensus exists even when objectively it did not, due to the judicial activism of its judges. It has been said that in failing to distinctly define how a consensus is reached reduces its legitimacy. Furthermore, as the ECtHR grows, the consensus between the members diminishes. However, the margin of appreciation doctrine has also come under sharp criticism from jurists and academics who say that it undermines
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#17327725162368432-462: The EU without first belonging to the Council of Europe. The Council of Europe is an official United Nations observer . The jurisdiction of the court has been recognized to date by all 46 member states of the Council of Europe . On 1 November 1998, the court became a full-time institution and the European Commission of Human Rights , which used to decide on admissibility of applications, was abolished by Protocol 11. The accession of new states to
8568-466: The European Convention on Human Rights . Protocol 14 was drafted with the aim of reducing the workload of the court and that of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, which supervises the execution of judgments, so that the court could focus on cases that raise important human rights issues. Judges are elected for a non-renewable nine-year term. The number of full-time judges sitting in
8704-478: The FBI sent out more than 140,000 " National Security Letters " ordering phone companies to hand over information about their customers' calling and Internet histories. About half of these letters requested information on U.S. citizens. Human agents are not required to monitor most calls. Speech-to-text software creates machine-readable text from intercepted audio, which is then processed by automated call-analysis programs, such as those developed by agencies such as
8840-525: The Grand Chamber if all parties to the case agree to the chamber of the court relinquishing jurisdiction to the Grand Chamber. A panel of five judges decides whether the Grand Chamber accepts the referral. Any contracting state to the European Convention on Human Rights can sue another contracting state in the court for alleged breaches of the convention, although in practice this is very rare. As of 2021 , five interstate cases have been decided by
8976-757: The Home Secretary said in Parliament that the protection of MPs communications from being intercepted still applies but does not extend to a blanket ban on surveillance. Surveillance Surveillance is the monitoring of behavior, many activities, or information for the purpose of information gathering, influencing, managing , or directing. This can include observation from a distance by means of electronic equipment, such as closed-circuit television (CCTV), or interception of electronically transmitted information like Internet traffic . Increasingly, governments may also obtain consumer data through
9112-447: The IPT if it regards conduct by or on behalf of: Unless the Tribunal has exclusive jurisdiction, claims against public authorities for the use of covert investigatory powers can also be brought in the ordinary courts. The Tribunal does, however, have the power to investigate a complaint made to it which ordinary courts do not possess. There are two types of complaint possible: Complaints may be dealt with on paper or by oral hearing, at
9248-486: The IPT's discretion. The vast majority of decisions are dealt on paper only. This means only a small percentage of cases submitted to the Tribunal proceed to a hearing in court. The Tribunal is under no duty to hold a hearing. Unlike most courts in the UK, which use an adversarial system , the IPT mostly uses an inquisitorial system , similar to that of Coroner's Courts , Sheriff Courts under fatal accident inquiry proceedings, or many courts in continental Europe . This
9384-522: The Interception of Communications Commissioner, and a special report made by the Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament . Paton v Poole Borough Council was a high-profile case of a family who were placed under surveillance by Poole Borough Council in order to investigate claims that the family were not living in the school catchment area which they claimed. Jenny Paton family
9520-613: The Interception of Communications Tribunal, the Security Service Tribunal, and the Intelligence Services Tribunal. Its powers were amended by the Investigatory Powers Act 2016 (IPA 2016) to, among other things, introduce appeals to higher courts. The IPT is a UK-wide tribunal. This means it operates in all three legal jurisdictions within the UK, taking into account the differences in law between them. The IPT considers complaints about
9656-498: The Metropolitan Police Department, so they could perform "day-to-day monitoring". The development of centralized networks of CCTV cameras watching public areas—linked to computer databases of people's pictures and identity ( biometric data), able to track people's movements throughout the city, and identify whom they have been with—has been argued by some to present a risk to civil liberties . Trapwire
9792-710: The NSA on American citizens. Once the data has been collected, the GCHQ can hold on to it for up to two years. The deadline can be extended with the permission of a "senior UK official". Surveillance cameras, or security cameras, are video cameras used for the purpose of observing an area. They are often connected to a recording device or IP network , and may be watched by a security guard or law enforcement officer . Cameras and recording equipment used to be relatively expensive and required human personnel to monitor camera footage, but analysis of footage has been made easier by automated software that organizes digital video footage into
9928-557: The Rules of Court. The president of the court, the two vice-presidents (also section presidents) and the three other section presidents are elected by the Plenary Court, Section presidents are elected by the Plenary Court, a formation made up of the 46 elected judges of the court. The mandate of the holders is for a renewable period of three years. They are renowned for their morality and competence. They must be independent and there
10064-471: The Tribunal, as well as organising and summarising evidence to be shown to the complainant. The role is somewhat comparable to the role of the procurator fiscal in Sheriff Court fatal accident inquiries. The IPT's judiciary are known as Tribunal Members. They are appointed from experienced lawyers and judiciary. The Tribunal President is always a Lord Justice of Appeal. The Vice-President is always
10200-549: The UK at 4.2 million (of which 500,000 were in Greater London ). More reliable estimates put the number of private and local government operated cameras in the United Kingdom at around 1.85 million in 2011. In the Netherlands, one example city where there are cameras is The Hague. There, cameras are placed in city districts in which the most illegal activity is concentrated. Examples are the red-light districts and
10336-566: The UK government submitted documents to the IPT which showed for the first time that its intelligence services could access raw material collected in bulk by the National Security Agency (NSA), and other foreign spy agencies, without a warrant. This appeared to contradict assurances given in July 2013 by the Parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee which stated that in all cases in which GCHQ obtained intelligence from
10472-415: The US a warrant was signed by a minister. On 6 November 2014, official documents disclosed to the IPT by the intelligence agencies revealed that their guidance policies allowed staff to access confidential communications between lawyers and their clients. This privileged relationship is usually strictly protected under British law, and leading campaigners said the disclosures had "troubling implications for
10608-412: The aerial surveillance process. They have developed systems consisting of large teams drone planes that pilot themselves, automatically decide who is "suspicious" and how to go about monitoring them, coordinate their activities with other drones nearby, and notify human operators if something suspicious is occurring. This greatly increases the amount of area that can be continuously monitored, while reducing
10744-438: The applicability of ECtHR decisions. A 2016 book characterizes Austria , Belgium , Czechia , Germany , Italy , Poland , and Sweden to be mostly friendly to ECtHR judgements; France , Hungary , the Netherlands , Norway , Switzerland , and Turkey to be moderately critical; the United Kingdom to be strongly critical; and Russia to be openly hostile. In 2019, south Caucasus states were judged partially compliant in
10880-430: The applicant's representative. Once registered with the court, the case is assigned to a Judge Rapporteur , who can make a final decision on whether the case is inadmissible. A case may be inadmissible when it is incompatible with the requirements of ratione materiae , ratione temporis or ratione personae , or if the case cannot be proceeded with on formal grounds, such as non-exhaustion of domestic remedies, lapse of
11016-411: The casting vote. Article 35 of the European Convention on Human Rights establishes as a precondition on referral to the European Court of Human Rights, the exhaustion of domestic remedies. This condition is the consequence of the subsidiary jurisdiction of the supranational court, which monitors the application of the convention and seeks to eradicate human rights violations. The applicant must establish
11152-459: The city of Chicago , Illinois, recently used a $ 5.1 million Homeland Security grant to install an additional 250 surveillance cameras, and connect them to a centralized monitoring center, along with its preexisting network of over 2000 cameras, in a program known as Operation Virtual Shield . Speaking in 2009, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley announced that Chicago would have a surveillance camera on every street corner by 2016. New York City received
11288-580: The code themselves or to get the code from the phone's owner. Because the Snowden leaks demonstrated that American agencies can access phones anywhere in the world, privacy concerns in countries with growing markets for smart phones have intensified, providing a strong incentive for companies like Apple to address those concerns in order to secure their position in the global market. Apple has made several moves to emphasize their concern for privacy, in order to appeal to more consumers. In 2011, Apple stopped
11424-597: The conduct any organisation with powers under RIPA, particularly with regards to surveillance. These include: Section 65 of the RIPA 2000 empowers the IPT to consider proceedings under the Human Rights Act 1998 , to enforce Article 13 of the European Convention on Human Rights. It has exclusive jurisdiction over HRA complaints against any of the intelligence services. Other claims under the HRA can only be considered by
11560-421: The context of automatic decision-making. Aerial surveillance is the gathering of surveillance, usually visual imagery or video, from an airborne vehicle—such as an unmanned aerial vehicle , helicopter , or spy plane . Military surveillance aircraft use a range of sensors (e.g. radar) to monitor the battlefield. Digital imaging technology, miniaturized computers, and numerous other technological advances over
11696-610: The contracting parties to the European Convention on Human Rights have incorporated the convention into their own national legal systems, either through constitutional provision, statute or judicial decision. The ECtHR increasingly considers judicial dialogue with national courts to be a "high priority", especially when it comes to implementation of judgements. According to a 2012 study, the ECTtHR tends to justify its decisions with citations to its own case law in order to convince national courts to accept its rulings. In 2015, Russia adopted
11832-401: The contracting state to redress violations. Judgments by the court are binding on the respondent states concerned and states usually comply with the Court's judgments. Chambers decide cases by a majority. Any judge who has heard the case can attach to the judgment a separate opinion. This opinion can concur or dissent with the decision of the court. In case of a tie in voting, the president has
11968-414: The convention it has no jurisdiction to annul domestic laws or administrative practices which violate the convention. The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe is charged with supervising the execution of the court's judgments. The Committee of Ministers oversees the contracting states' changes to their national law in order that it is compatible with the convention, or individual measures taken by
12104-531: The convention or its optional protocols to which a member state is a party. The court is based in Strasbourg , France . The court was established in 1959 and decided its first case in 1960 in Lawless v. Ireland . An application can be lodged by an individual, a group of individuals, or one or more of the other contracting states. Aside from judgments, the court can also issue advisory opinions. The convention
12240-493: The convention. Furthermore, since the Treaty of Lisbon took effect on 1 December 2009, the EU is expected to sign the convention. That would mean that the Court of Justice is bound by the judicial precedents of the Court of Human Rights' case law and so is subject to its human rights law, which would avoid issues of conflicting case law between these two courts. In December 2014, the CJEU released Opinion 2/13 rejecting accession to
12376-471: The court become final three months after they are issued, unless a reference to the Grand Chamber for review or appeal has been made. If the panel of the Grand Chamber rejects the request for referral, the judgment of the chamber of the court becomes final. The Grand Chamber is made up of 17 judges: the court's president and vice-presidents, the section presidents and the national judge, together with other judges selected by drawing of lots. Grand Chambers include
12512-472: The court is equal to the number of contracting states to the European Convention on Human Rights , currently 46. The convention requires that judges be of "high moral character" and have qualifications suitable for high judicial office, or be jurists of recognised competence. Each judge is elected by majority vote in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe from among three candidates nominated by each contracting state. Judges are elected whenever
12648-425: The court is generally divided into inter-state cases, applications by individuals against contracting states, and advisory opinions in accordance with Protocol No.2. Applications by individuals constitute the majority of cases heard by the court. A committee is constituted by three judges, chambers by seven judges, and a Grand Chamber by 17 judges. Applications by individuals against contracting states, alleging that
12784-526: The court may be subject to judicial review . As such, decisions may be reviewed by: Parties may choose to be represented by a barrister , advocate (in Scotland), or solicitor , but these are not required. It is common for complainants to represent themselves. Counsel to the Tribunal are normally temporary appointments to assist the Tribunal's consideration of a complaint. This can be because: The CTT will ensure that all relevant arguments are put before
12920-473: The court opened 45,500 case files. In 2009, 57,200 applications were allocated, with 119,300 pending. At the time, more than 90 per cent of applications were declared to be inadmissible, and the majority of cases decided—around 60 per cent of the decisions by the court—related to what is termed repetitive cases : where the court has already delivered judgment finding a violation of the European Convention on Human Rights or where well established case law exists on
13056-430: The court: The Committee of Ministers may, by majority vote, ask the court to deliver an advisory opinion on the interpretation of the European Convention on Human Rights , unless the matter relates to the content and scope of fundamental rights which the court has already considered. Since 2018, member states can similarly request advisory opinions on questions of principle concerning the interpretation or application of
13192-465: The crowd for potential criminals and terrorists in attendance at the event (it found 19 people with pending arrest warrants). Governments often initially claim that cameras are meant to be used for traffic control , but many of them end up using them for general surveillance. For example, Washington, D.C. had 5,000 "traffic" cameras installed under this premise, and then after they were all in place, networked them all together and then granted access to
13328-599: The data. Data profiling in this context is the process of assembling information about a particular individual or group in order to generate a profile — that is, a picture of their patterns and behavior. Data profiling can be an extremely powerful tool for psychological and social network analysis . A skilled analyst can discover facts about a person that they might not even be consciously aware of themselves. Economic (such as credit card purchases) and social (such as telephone calls and emails) transactions in modern society create large amounts of stored data and records. In
13464-946: The face. Law enforcement officers believe that this has potential for them to identify when a suspect is nervous, which might indicate that they are hiding something, lying, or worried about something. In his paper in Ethics and Information Technology , Avi Marciano maps the harms caused by biometric surveillance, traces their theoretical origins, and brings these harms together in one integrative framework to elucidate their cumulative power. Marciano proposes four types of harms: Unauthorized use of bodily information, denial or limitation of access to physical spaces, bodily social sorting, and symbolic ineligibility through construction of marginality and otherness. Biometrics' social power, according to Marciano, derives from three main features: their complexity as "enigmatic technologies", their objective-scientific image, and their increasing agency, particularly in
13600-467: The four months from the last internal decision complained of, anonymity, substantial identity with a matter already submitted to the court, or with another procedure of international investigation. If the Judge Rapporteur decides that the case can proceed, the case is then referred to a chamber of the court which, unless it decides that the application is inadmissible, communicates the case to
13736-443: The government of the state against which the application is made, asking the government to present its observations on the case. The chamber of the court then deliberates and judges the case on its admissibility and its merits. Cases that raise serious questions of interpretation and application of the European Convention on Human Rights, a serious issue of general importance, or which may depart from previous case law can be heard in
13872-412: The holding of a private hearing. In practice the majority of cases are heard in private following written pleadings. In confidential proceedings the court may assist both parties in securing a settlement, in which case the court monitors the compliance of the agreement with the convention. However, in many cases, a hearing is not held. The judgment of the Grand Chamber is final. Judgments by the chamber of
14008-504: The inability of the national courts to remedy the breaches, by exercising the appropriate remedies effective and adequate, and in substance alleging a violation of the Convention. Rule 39 of the Rules of the Court permits the ECtHR to "indicate to the parties any interim measure which they consider should be adopted in the interests of the parties or of the proper conduct of the proceedings." Interim measures are binding and afford litigants temporary protections on an expedited basis, although
14144-429: The independence of the court, judges are not allowed to participate in activity that may compromise the court's independence. Judges cannot hear or decide a case if they have a familial or professional relationship with a party. A judge can be dismissed from office only if the other judges decide, by a two-thirds majority, that the judge has ceased to fulfil the required conditions. Judges enjoy, during their term as judges,
14280-513: The information was ever useful in an investigation. Some people believe that the use of social networking sites is a form of "participatory surveillance", where users of these sites are essentially performing surveillance on themselves, putting detailed personal information on public websites where it can be viewed by corporations and governments. In 2008, about 20% of employers reported using social networking sites to collect personal data on prospective or current employees. Biometric surveillance
14416-421: The interiors of shops and businesses. According to 2011 Freedom of Information Act requests, the total number of local government operated CCTV cameras was around 52,000 over the entirety of the UK. The prevalence of video surveillance in the UK is often overstated due to unreliable estimates being requoted; for example one report in 2002 extrapolated from a very small sample to estimate the number of cameras in
14552-403: The legal expenses incurred in domestic courts and the court in bringing the case. The court's judgments are public and must contain reasons justifying the decision. Article 46 of the convention provides that contracting states undertake to abide by the court's final decision. On the other hand, advisory opinions are, by definition, non-binding. The court has to date decided consistently that under
14688-591: The living instrument doctrine has changed ECtHR jurisprudence over time is with regard to differential treatment exclusively based on ethnicity , gender, religion, or sexual orientation , which it is increasingly likely to label unjustified discrimination . In addition, with the proliferation of alternative family arrangements, the court has expanded its definition of family under Article 8, for example to same-sex couples , as in Oliari and Others v Italy (2015). Although defenders argue that living instrument doctrine
14824-448: The major markers in the body's DNA to produce a match. The FBI is spending $ 1 billion to build a new biometric database, which will store DNA, facial recognition data, iris/retina (eye) data, fingerprints, palm prints, and other biometric data of people living in the United States. The computers running the database are contained in an underground facility about the size of two American football fields . The Los Angeles Police Department
14960-691: The monitoring of data and traffic on the Internet . In the United States for example, under the Communications Assistance For Law Enforcement Act , all phone calls and broadband Internet traffic (emails, web traffic, instant messaging, etc.) are required to be available for unimpeded real-time monitoring by federal law enforcement agencies. There is far too much data on the Internet for human investigators to manually search through all of it. Therefore, automated Internet surveillance computers sift through
15096-690: The network, and removing them. To do this requires a detailed map of the network. Jason Ethier of Northeastern University, in his study of modern social network analysis, said the following of the Scalable Social Network Analysis Program developed by the Information Awareness Office : The purpose of the SSNA algorithms program is to extend techniques of social network analysis to assist with distinguishing potential terrorist cells from legitimate groups of people.... In order to be successful SSNA will require information on
15232-434: The number of human operators required. Thus a swarm of automated, self-directing drones can automatically patrol a city and track suspicious individuals, reporting their activities back to a centralized monitoring station. In addition, researchers also investigate possibilities of autonomous surveillance by large groups of micro aerial vehicles stabilized by decentralized bio-inspired swarming rules. Corporate surveillance
15368-472: The past decade have contributed to rapid advances in aerial surveillance hardware such as micro-aerial vehicles , forward-looking infrared , and high-resolution imagery capable of identifying objects at extremely long distances. For instance, the MQ-9 Reaper , a U.S. drone plane used for domestic operations by the Department of Homeland Security , carries cameras that are capable of identifying an object
15504-402: The past, this data was documented in paper records, leaving a " paper trail ", or was simply not documented at all. Correlation of paper-based records was a laborious process—it required human intelligence operators to manually dig through documents, which was time-consuming and incomplete, at best. But today many of these records are electronic, resulting in an " electronic trail ". Every use of
15640-403: The person who holds the phone. The StingRay tracker is an example of one of these tools used to monitor cell phone usage in the United States and the United Kingdom. Originally developed for counterterrorism purposes by the military, they work by broadcasting powerful signals that cause nearby cell phones to transmit their IMSI number , just as they would to normal cell phone towers. Once
15776-565: The phone is connected to the device, there is no way for the user to know that they are being tracked. The operator of the stingray is able to extract information such as location, phone calls, and text messages, but it is widely believed that the capabilities of the StingRay extend much further. A lot of controversy surrounds the StingRay because of its powerful capabilities and the secrecy that surrounds it. Mobile phones are also commonly used to collect location data. The geographical location of
15912-446: The principle of "emerging consensus" of the member states on which the ECtHR operates is fundamentally flawed, because such a consensus often relies on trends, and historically in many instances social and political consensus was retrospectively acknowledged to have been wrong. Such an approach is accused of risking stigmatisation and coercion of the few dissenting countries, encouraging a pack mentality . Furthermore, critics argue that
16048-509: The privileges and immunities provided for in Article 40 of the Statute of the Council of Europe . The European Court of Human Rights is assisted by a registry made up of around 640 agents, of which a little less than half of lawyers divided into 31 sections. The registry carries out preparatory work for the judges., and performs the communication activities of the court, with the applicants,
16184-438: The protection of a process, person, group or object, or the investigation of crime. It is also used by criminal organizations to plan and commit crimes, and by businesses to gather intelligence on criminals, their competitors, suppliers or customers. Religious organizations charged with detecting heresy and heterodoxy may also carry out surveillance. Auditors carry out a form of surveillance. A byproduct of surveillance
16320-408: The public and the press. The registrar and the deputy registrar are elected by the Plenary Court. The plenary court is an assembly of all of the court's judges. It has no judicial functions. It elects the court's president, vice-president, registrar and deputy registrar. It also deals with administrative matters, discipline, working methods, reforms, the establishment of Chambers and the adoption of
16456-434: The purchase of online information, effectively expanding surveillance capabilities through commercially available digital records. It can also include simple technical methods, such as human intelligence gathering and postal interception . Surveillance is used by citizens, for instance for protecting their neighborhoods. It is widely used by governments for intelligence gathering, including espionage, prevention of crime,
16592-525: The size of a milk carton from altitudes of 30,000 feet (9.1 km), and has forward-looking infrared devices that can detect the heat from a human body at distances of up to 60 kilometers (37 mi). In an earlier instance of commercial aerial surveillance, the Killington Mountain ski resort hired 'eye in the sky' aerial photography of its competitors' parking lots to judge the success of its marketing initiatives as it developed starting in
16728-498: The social interactions of the majority of people around the globe. Since the Defense Department cannot easily distinguish between peaceful citizens and terrorists, it will be necessary for them to gather data on innocent civilians as well as on potential terrorists. AT&T developed a programming language called "Hancock", which is able to sift through enormous databases of phone call and Internet traffic records, such as
16864-409: The state can afford to pay than the specific harm suffered by the complainant. In some cases, repeated patterns of human rights violations lead to higher awards in an effort to punish the responsible state, but paradoxically in other cases they lead to lower awards, or the cases being struck entirely. The court's primary method of judicial interpretation is living instrument doctrine , meaning that
17000-403: The state violated their rights under the European Convention on Human Rights , can be made by any person, non-governmental organisation , or group of individuals. Although the official languages of the court are English and French, applications may be submitted in any one of the official languages of the contracting states. An application has to be made in writing and signed by the applicant or by
17136-480: The train stations. As part of China's Golden Shield Project , several U.S. corporations, including IBM , General Electric , and Honeywell , have been working closely with the Chinese government to install millions of surveillance cameras throughout China , along with advanced video analytics and facial recognition software, which will identify and track individuals everywhere they go. They will be connected to
17272-464: The universal nature of human rights. Proportionality analysis governs much of the Court's jurisprudence. The guarantees of ECHR Articles 8, 9, 10, and 11 are subject to whatever limitations may be "necessary in a democratic society," citing factors including national security, public safety, health and morals, and the rights and freedoms of others. Such conditions require the balancing of individual rights and community interests, as first articulated in
17408-455: The use of permanent device identifiers, and in 2019, they banned the ability of third parties to track on children’s apps. Although the CALEA requires telecommunications companies to build into their systems the ability to carry out a lawful wiretap, the law has not been updated to address the issue of smart phones and requests for access to e-mails and metadata . The Snowden leaks show that
17544-407: The vast amount of intercepted Internet traffic to identify and report to human investigators the traffic that is considered interesting or suspicious. This process is regulated by targeting certain "trigger" words or phrases, visiting certain types of web sites, or communicating via email or online chat with suspicious individuals or groups. Billions of dollars per year are spent by agencies, such as
17680-665: The whole British justice system". The release of the documents resulted from a claim brought on behalf of two Libyan men who had sued the British government for alleged complicity in their detention and subsequent rendition to the Libyan authorities. The British government refused to make a full statement concerning the revelations contained in the documents, saying only that it did not comment on ongoing legal proceedings. The IPT initially ruled in December 2014 that GCHQ did not breach
17816-541: The world. Nevertheless, the court has faced challenges with verdicts not implemented by the contracting parties. On 10 December 1948, the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights , which aims to promote the universal recognition of rights set out therein, in order to strengthen the protection of human rights at the international level. While hugely important in setting
17952-414: Was adopted within the context of the Council of Europe, and all of its 46 member states are contracting parties to the convention. The court's primary means of judicial interpretation is the living instrument doctrine , meaning that the Convention is interpreted in light of present-day conditions. International law scholars consider the ECtHR to be the most effective international human rights court in
18088-526: Was applying to send her child to Liliput First School, which was over-subscribed at the time. Believing that she lived elsewhere, PBC used its powers under RIPA 2000 to 'spy on her family 21 times'. The IPT would rule that the use of covert surveillance by the council was not an appropriate use of these powers. In 2015, three parliamentarians took a case to the IPT that the Wilson Doctrine , that parliamentarians' communications should not be tapped,
18224-546: Was being broken. The IPT would find that the Wilson Doctrine was not enforceable in law and does not impose any legal restraints on the intelligence agencies. It stated MPs have the same level of legal protection as the general public when it comes to interception of their communications, and that only lawyers and journalists have more protection due to human rights law. Subsequently, the Prime Minister and
18360-414: Was introduced, and 2014, when two paragraphs of additional information, providing details about the procedures and safeguards, were disclosed to the public in December 2014. It also ruled that the legislative framework in the United Kingdom does not permit mass surveillance and that while GCHQ collects and analyses data in bulk, it does not practice mass surveillance. This complemented independent reports by
18496-510: Was reported to have a huge surveillance network of over 170 million CCTV cameras with 400 million new cameras expected to be installed in the next three years, many of which use facial recognition technology . In the United States , the Department of Homeland Security awards billions of dollars per year in Homeland Security grants for local, state, and federal agencies to install modern video surveillance equipment. For example,
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