UN human rights report blows apart governments’ pro-surveillance arguments

Mass surveillance by intelligence agencies is almost certainly illegal under international law, even where it involves collecting but not looking at people’s data, the United Nations human rights chief has advised.

In a damning but cautiously phrased report, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay recommended that governments review their national laws, policies and practices to check that they do comply with international human rights law, then fix them if they don’t.

The report doesn’t name names, but it’s not very hard to see that much of it applies to the activities of the US and its various intelligence partners. “The very existence of a mass surveillance programme creates an interference with privacy,” Pillay said.