Britain’s spy agencies should continue using surveillance powers to collect large amounts of data from emails, the UK government’s reviewer of terror legislation says.
The report, which was published on Friday by terror laws watchdog David Anderson QC, assesses the operational case for four of the powers in the Investigatory Powers (IP) Bill currently going through Parliament.
MI5, MI6 and GCHQ use bulk capabilities, including bulk interception, bulk acquisition, bulk equipment interference and bulk personal datasets.
The capabilities have a “clear operational purpose,” said Anderson, who serves as the government’s Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation.
He said that bulk powers “play an important part in identifying, understanding and averting threats in Great Britain, Northern Ireland and further afield.”
British Prime Minister Theresa May, who ordered the review when she was home secretary, welcomed the findings, claiming that the…