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law
This page considers responses to the Echelon intelligence
network and agencies such as the NSA and DSD.
It covers -
introduction
Law regarding Echelon is particularly problematical.
One reason is that activity in particular nations may well
be authorised under national security directives that are
not publicly available and are so hedged with restrictions
as to be substantially unchallenged by legislators or members
of the public.
It has been suggested, for example, that under secret post-2001
National Security Presidential Directives issued by President
Bush former US limits on domestic electronic surveillance
(such as the 1980 US Signals Intelligence Directive
18) have been substantially modified as part of the
ongoing 'war on terror'.
Another reason appears to be that some states are evading
the letter of legislation and formal guidelines, tacitly
surveilling communications in 'friendly' nations in exchange
for information about communications within their own states
- information that ostensibly cannot be collected an agency
within a particular state.
A third reason is that privacy
legislation - and more broadly human
rights law - embodies tensions between respect for individuals
and the community. In protecting individuals and their communications
it will thus concurrently seek to enable the administration
of justice and provide for public safety, which may include
surveillance. In a global economy that surveillance may
necessarily take place within and across borders. It may
also utilise technologies that are antithetical to what
were traditional message by message or caller by caller
authorisations (eg a warrant for tapping a specific line).
A fourth reason is that most privacy
regimes seek to provide robust protection for natural
persons against unlawful interception but offer uncertain
protection for other legal persons (eg businesses).
Many states thus embody statute and administrative regimes
that
- require
telecommunication network operators to take technical
precautions to protect privacy against illegal interception
- require
those operators to facilitate legal interception
- authorise
that legal interception by agencies whose accountability,
effectiveness and mode of operation is uncertain.
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