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‘Rights involved in UK snoop decision’

Analysts say the British government had to drop its citizen espionage program due to concerns over European laws and rights issues.

Following reports that the British government has abandoned a citizen snooping program, speculations are emerging as to what has motivated Prime Minister David Cameron to adopt the decision. Ian Williams, a senior analyst from the London-based Foreign Policy in Focus, has told Press TV that Cameron was compelled to shelf the controversial plan due to European laws.

“The British government’s citizen snooping program would have been in violation of the European law which is quite strict about saving data and abusing data,” said Williams.

The British government, he added, would have found a way to get away with its citizen espionage program had it not been subject to the European Court of Justice, he added.

The Home Office announced on Sunday that it had removed several contentious proposals from the surveillance bill, stressing that the decision is based on concerns that the plan to snoop on Internet users would be rejected in parliament over civil liberties concerns.

Williams said that the bulk of Western governments have committed what he described as “outstanding breaches of human civil rights” in the aftermath of 9/11 attacks and “the so-called anti-terrorism hysteria”.

“Now that the panic has died down, they are finding that people questioning what happened,” he added.

Williams said that it is necessary for the British government to review its citizen cyberspace surveillance activities, stressing that the restrictions that question the legality for such policies are already growing.

“The British government had been spying on everybody for years,” he said.

“Part of this is a strategic partnership with the US where the GCHQ- the General Communications Headquarters in Britain – can do spying on the Americans but the Americans government can’t and they then share the profits over this with themselves,” Williams added.

He further emphasized that the British government is expected to continue spying on its citizens even though it has announced that no program to that effect will continue at the current juncture.

“Once they get into the habit of spying, it’s very difficult to break,” said Williams. “I’m almost certain that they will be collecting this material in some form and abusing it”.


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