Britain's intelligence agencies are told to make privacy invasion assessment

Britain's security and intelligence agencies should consider how far they are invading people's privacy when they seek permission for intrusive surveillance, their government-appointed watchdog has recommended.

Sir Mark Waller, the intelligence services commissioner, said the agencies should set out the specific invasion of privacy requested so that a proper assessment could be made of whether it was justified. Before invading people's privacy, the intelligence services must satisfy the minister that intrusive surveillance is necessary and proportionate, which means that the intelligence gain will be sufficiently great to justify the intrusion into the privacy of the target and any unavoidable collateral intrusion into the privacy of others.

The commissioner says he questions staff about how they have applied the tests of necessity and proportionality. Concerns that the interference may have been disproportionate seem to have prompted Sir Waller's insistence that the agencies pay more attention to privacy in future.

"I have recommended to all the agencies that separate consideration be given to the individual privacy being invaded as part of the test for proportionality," he said in his concluding chapter. "In all cases, I want to see this set out separately in the application for these intrusive techniques and to see this wording reflected in the warrants."