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Comment by DanBC | Hacker News Reader

The bit of law you quote is less relevant to GCHQ and is aimed more at LEAs spying on parents to make sure they live in a school catchment area; or local councils making sure people applying for parking permits actually live in a qualifying house.

Here is the GCHQ bit of RIPA, which makes reference to part of the bit you quoted.

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/23/section/42

GCHQs mission is to monitor all communications. Thus, to them anything will be proportionate. The over iew and scrutiny failed and failed hard - i have no idea why anyone thought it was acceptable to gather webcam data. (Maybe as a training exercise where the data is then deleted or a proof of concept?)

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Update from the Guardian:

"Section 8 of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (2000) permits GCHQ to perform indiscriminate trawls of external data"

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/27/gchq-insists-op...

> The over iew and scrutiny failed and failed hard - i have no idea why anyone thought it was acceptable to gather webcam data.

You know, maybe they're not that concerned with decency when setting up a police state.

In fact, maybe they figured they could use some facial recognition data on their subjects? I bet the NSA doesn't have any on US citizens though. I mean, how could they possibly monitor Americans when it's against the rules?!

I am specifically not talking about the NSA - incompetant to the poi t that a temporary worker for a contractor was anle to steal secret documents.

As for GCHQ oversight: it'd need to be a conspiracy spanning government (all parties); judiciary; etc. i'm not saying it couldn't happen, but the alternative (GCHQ lied; the oversight committees were incompetent) is easier to believe.

http://www.gchq.gov.uk/how_we_work/running_the_business/over...

http://isc.independent.gov.uk/

http://isc.intelligencecommissioners.com/default.asp

http://www.iocco-uk.info/

http://www.iocco-uk.info/docs/2012%20Annual%20Report%20of%20...

> I am specifically not talking about the NSA

Right, and there was no reason to think I thought you were.

> As for GCHQ oversight: it'd need to be a conspiracy spanning government (all parties); judiciary; etc

Yeah, it seems unimaginable that one side of the same coin could be in cahoots with the other! If they tell us GCHQ is being carefully overseen so that it won't do anything naughty, then it must be true! Besides, they're probably only spying on those naughty terrorist foreigners - not Englishmen - so everything is alright!

It's already public knowledge that the GCHQ is saving a copy of every byte passing through England, but hey, they need to do that to fight pedophiles and terrorists, and.. racists, of course!

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