Industrial espionage by TLA's

[Peter Fairbrother]

On 28/01/14 22:36, Brian L Johnson wrote:
> On Tue, 28 Jan 2014 10:16:54 -0000, Peter Fairbrother
> <zenadsl6186 at zen.co.uk> wrote:
>
>> I was wondering whether GCHQ did the same, and came to the conclusion
>> that they do - it is specifically allowed under RIPA.
>>
>> The Secretary of State (the Foreign Secretary in this case) can issue
>> a single certificated warrant to allow interception and examination of
>> any and all "external" [1] communications  "for the purpose of
>> safeguarding the economic well-being of the United Kingdom".
>>
>> See RIPA 8(4)(b)(ii) and 5(3)(c).
>>
>>
>> Peter Fairbrother
>>
>>
>> [1] "external" communications are communications where either the
>> sender or the intended recipient, or both, are outside the UK.
>>
>> It is uncertain whether this applies to eg an email which is sent from
>> a person in the UK to another person in the UK, but which is sent via
>> a foreign country - a not uncommon happening, eg mail to and from all
>> Google mail, Gmail and Hotmail addresses will pass through servers in
>> the US.
>
> Tom Watson recently posted this on Twitter:
>
> tom_watson @tom_watson 2h
>
> "Huge swath of GCHQ surveillance is illegal, says top lawyer":
> http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/jan/28/gchq-mass-surveillance-spying-law-lawyer
> … I'd appreciate your help in sharing this story.
>

Got a link for the opinion please?

Jemima Stratford is quoted as saying Ripa does not allow mass 
interception of contents of communications between two people in the UK, 
even if messages are routed via a transatlantic cable. I agree with her 
conclusion, but I'd like to see her reasoning.



-- Peter Fairbrother