UK spies can get intercepted communications from NSA without warrant, government lawyers admit

British intelligence services can get bulk intercepted communications data from the National Security Agency and other foreign agencies without a warrant, information disclosed by government lawyers has shown. This would likely include the communications of people in the UK itself.

This information about “arrangements” between U.K. spy agency GCHQ and foreign counterparts such as the NSA was given to the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT), the body that supposedly oversees how spies and public authorities use surveillance under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act, or RIPA. It was disclosed as part of a legal case brought about by human rights groups, including Privacy International, Amnesty International and Liberty, in the wake of Edward Snowden’s NSA leaks. When authorities spy within the UK, RIPA says they need a warrant to look at the contents of communications, as opposed to metadata, which is relatively easy to obtain. However, the arrangements that have now come to light say that the intelligence services can get “unanalysed intercepted communications” from foreign partners without a warrant from a government minister under certain circumstances, such as when “it is not technically feasible to obtain the communications via RIPA interception.”