THE TORIES’ latest snooper's charter, allowing the bulk collection of personal data on such spurious grounds as “protecting public health,” is illegal and must be scrapped, the High Court heard today.
The Investigatory Powers Act (IPA) authorises web and phone companies to retain communications that provide a “comprehensive and intimate portrait of a person’s private life” for access by the police and security agencies.
Civil rights group Liberty is bringing a crowd-funded legal challenge to the legality of the Act's data retention powers, arguing that they permit “significant intrusion” into British citizens’ rights to a private life and freedom of expression.
As peers prepare to debate reform of the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act, Labour MP Tonia Antoniazzi leads a bid to end the criminalisation of women who end pregnancies at home. LYNNE WALSH reports
Digital ID means the government could track anyone and then limit their speech, movements, finances — and it could get this all wrong, identifying the wrong people for the wrong reasons, as the numerous digital cockups so far demonstrate, warns DYLAN MURPHY
