June 19, 2014
If the thought of mass-surveillance makes your skin crawl, things are about to get a whole lot creepier after a recent revelation was made denoting under UK legislation, government bodies are permitted to snoop on all your social media activity. So think twice before sending that Snapchat, it might come back to bite you on the behind!
Head honcho for UK’s security and counter-terrorism Charles Farr, officially made the announcement stating:
“By defining the use of ‘platforms’ such as Facebook, Twitter and Google as ‘external communications’, British residents are being deprived of the essential safeguards that would otherwise be applied to their communications – simply because they are using services that are based outside the UK.”
This justification tells us that as our favourite social networks are largely US based, monitoring communications, whether it’s on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, and even Google searches are all allowed under the U.K.’s Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA), as they count as external communications. Unlike “internal communications” proof of wrongdoing before peeping through Facebook private messages is not required. So before you decide to press send on that risqué direct message on Twitter, think again, because Big Brother’s watching!
If you would like to learn more about social media and the law click here to download our social media law guide.
© “Big Brother WAS Watching!”. Photo by David Maddison. Attribution 2.0 Generic