Information commissioner voices fears over scale of NSA surveillance

Christopher Graham says issues of national security cannot be allowed to overshadow concerns of legitimate public interest

John Plunkett

The UK's information commissioner has expressed concern about the extent of the NSA's surveillance revealed by Edward Snowden, saying that issues of national security cannot be allowed to overshadow concerns of legitimate public interest.

Christopher Graham, head of the independent data protection body which reports to parliament, told the Society of Editors' annual conference that he was very concerned by reports of the scale of online eavesdropping but stopped short of criticising the security agencies.

"Security cannot trump every other consideration," he said on Monday. "We don't have that public confidence [in the security services]. That has been the real damage. We have to find a mechanism to bring that back on track."

Liberty's director, Shami Chakrabarti, asked about the impact of the Snowden revelations on the security services' attempts to tackle terrorism, said: "I'm sure it creates challenges and irritations [but] any challenges are probably overblown. The serious bad boys know all about the technological possibilities."

Chakrabarti said Snowden had revealed "not just blanket surveillance and intrusion of privacy [but] that we got taken for mugs.

"There was a big debate in this country about a snooper's charter. That bill was dropped and now we find out they were doing this stuff anyway. That is not just a breach of privacy it is a fundamental breach of the rule of law, contempt for people, parliament and contempt of the law.

"There is a balance always between privacy and transparency and national security. What it looks like to me is they want no privacy for us and no scrutiny for them and that's the wrong way round in a democracy."

She added: "Credit to … Snowden and [Glenn] Greenwald and the Guardian. Look what they have revealed."

Freedom of information campaigner Heather Brooke said intelligence services and the military had been left behind by the digital revolution and was struggling to catch up.

"The digital revolution has disrupted all industries, including journalism, and it is only now the disruption is hitting the hard power, the police, military, intelligence services, and they absolutely don't know how to deal with the diffusion of power," she said. "It's freaking them out."

Asked whether she would have published the Snowden documents, Brooke said: "Yes of course."

She said the security services "have this idea if they can only spy on everyone at all times that will keep us safer. A lot of people would argue that is not the case, and that some of the things done in the name of national security are actually incredibly dangerous.

"The American government has undermined security by undermining encryption. That's been destroyed not by Edward Snowden but by theNSA and what they have done."

Graham expressed some alarm at Snowden's revelations about the extent of the NSA's surveillance, which he said suggested "encryption was for the birds".

He said he was particularly alarmed by reports that encryption had been compromised and the "big internet companies have been leaving open the back door for security services".

Graham said: "I am going around telling everyone that they have got to use strong passwords and encryption to keep their information safe online and here is a story saying encryption is for the birds."

Asked if he was critical of the security agencies responsible, Graham said: "All I know is what I read in the Guardian. I am trying to find out what's going on; I want to get to the facts and make a judgment. Of course it isn't a good idea in principle."

Andrew Vallance, secretary of the DA notice committee, the voluntary body which advises the press when revelations could threaten national security, told the conference he did not approve of Snowden's activity because of the scale of the data involved.

"I can't say I have any time for [Snowden] simply because if you steal files on an industrial scale you have no knowledge of what those files contain," he said.

"When you are talking about hundreds of thousands of files you don't know what they contain and therefore what he is doing by stealing these files is to go into the unknown. They may contain information, the consequences of which have not been appreciated by the individuals."

Vallance said he believed the Snowden revelations about the scale of security agency surveillance "will expose us to more dangers".

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/nov/11/information-commissioner-very-concerned-online-eavesdropping