The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) 2000
Introduction
The European Court of Human Rights in 1998 said that organisations could abuse their positions of power with regards to the interception of electronic communications and that an individual's right to privacy could be abused. As a result, the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 was passed to tighten up the UK's surveillance laws.
RIPA 2000
Originally, RIPA 2000 made it an offence for anyone who was not authorised under the Act to carry out any kind of surveillance on individuals. The RIPA 2000 Act provided a legal framework for nine organisations including the police and security services such as MI5 to carry out their jobs and get access to the communications of private citizens, such as email, texts, phone calls, letters and parcels and other forms of comunication. It also gave them the right to order individuals and organisations to hand over keys to encrypted files, with a 2 year prison sentence possible if they didn't. These organisations needed to be able to intercept communications and access encrypted files to prevent and detect crimes, defend national security from threats e.g. terrorism, prevent public disorder and to investigate the illegal use of any communications systems.
The right to intercept communications in 2015
Fast forward to 2015 and there are many organisations that now have the right to intercept communications, including the Charity Commission, the Environmental Agency, the Food Standards Agency, Local Authorities and the Pensions Regulator! Indeed, many people think that the original framework for controlling who had the right to intercept communications and what they have the right to intercept has been watered down so much that it is now essentially a worthless framework. For example, Local Authorities have used their powers under RIPA 2000 to put people under surveillance to try and catch them illegally claiming benefits, harvesting fish, committing immigration offences, committing dog fouling offences, carrying out motoring offences and lying over where they live so that they can get their children into a particular school.
Snooper's charter?
These kinds of crimes are not what RIPA 2000 was set up to fight and many people argue that RIPA 2000 is just a "snooper's charter" that no longer protects an individual's right to privacy. Neither does the Act give an individual an effective way to seek redress if it is a victim of an organisation abusing its privileged position to intercept data. James Welch of Liberty (an organisation that campaigns for the rights of individuals) said: "It's one thing to use covert surveillance in operations investigating terrorism and other serious crimes, but it has come to a pretty pass when this kind of intrusive activity is used to police school catchment areas."
An attack on freedom?
In early 2015, the UK Government was forced to initiate emergency legislation to prevent RIPA 2000 being used by the police to demand that the phone call and email logs of journalists were revealed by phone companies during their investigations into phone hacking. This measure was seen as necessary as it was felt that the police were attacking journalistic freedom and discouraging whistleblowing. Although it would still be possible for the police to get this information, they would be forced to use a different piece of legislation, which required presenting compelling reasons to a judge and getting their approval, something that RIPA 2000 did not. This was seen as an important safeguard.