Thanks to NSA and GCHQ Europeans don’t need confessionals anymore
Booth for confession in Santa Maria Assunta’s Cathedral, Padova.
While Edward Snowden is still in Russia, an enquiry by the European parliament’s civil liberties committee condemned in the “strongest possible terms” the mass surveillance programmes used by US and Britain to spy on people in Europe. The 51-page draft report – anticipated by The Guardian – was discussed by the committee on Thursday. The document asserts that western intelligence agencies have been involved in spying on “an unprecedented scale and in an indiscriminate and non-suspicion-based manner”. The document also:
– Calls on the US authorities and EU states to prohibit blanket mass surveillance activities and bulk processing of personal data.
– Deplores the way intelligence agencies “have declined to co-operate with the inquiry the European parliament has been conducting on behalf of citizens”.
– Insists mass surveillance has potentially severe effects on the freedom of the press, as well as a significant potential for abuse of information gathered against political opponents.
– Demands that the UK, Germany, France, Sweden and the Netherlands revise laws governing the activities of intelligence services to ensure they are in line with the European convention on human rights.
– Calls on the US to revise its own laws to bring them into line with international law, so they “recognise the privacy and other rights of EU citizens”.
So, be careful.
January 9, 2014
