Edward Snowden Hails Court Ruling Acknowledging Devastation of Mass Surveillance

> On Tuesday, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR)—in Big Brother Watch and Others v. the United Kingdom—upheld a 2018 ruling by the court's lower chamber, determining that mass surveillance by the British government breached human rights laws under the European Convention aimed at safeguarding Europeans' rights to privacy.

> The court's 17 judges unanimously agreed that the mining of billions of calls, emails, text messages and other data by British intelligence services lacked the independent scrutiny to protect the right to privacy and freedom of expression.

> However, most of the judges allowed for the continued sharing of intercepted digital communications with foreign governments or intelligence agencies.

This would almost certainly be the end result in the US too, if a plaintiff would have standing to sue. Unfortunately, that's the Catch 22 that's really prevented any of the particularly egregious practices from having their legal justification scrutinized in a court of law. However, because these programs are secret, you have by definition no way of knowing that you've been harmed and therefore have standing.

>Edward Snowden Hails Court

Another great headline by Tom Swift

> This would be the opposite of what the founding fathers wanted for Europe when they signed the Convention in 1950

It is weird to hear this as an American. We frequently discuss "what the founding fathers wanted" but those founding fathers aren't alive anymore and we can't ask their friends or children for more clarity. But this was only 70 years ago.

I hope Snowden receives pardon and comes back to his home country. Two presidents have already left office and I was hoping Trump did that. Snowden is a whistleblower and he needs protection since his report to Washington Post was done in good faith.