POLITICO: UK’s data flows under EU surveillance

24 August 2017

The UK’s beefed-up surveillance law — the Investigatory Powers Act, which came into force at the end of last year — seems to violate EU fundamental rights and will cause problems for any eventual arrangement on data flows post Brexit.

[...]The EU’s highest court — the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg  — gave the U.K. a stern slap on the wrist in December for what it regards as the excessive powers granted to security services. And the European Commission is seeking assurances from the U.K. that these powers won’t be abused.

“What the U.K. needs to do is convince the Commission — and perhaps one day the European Court of Justice — that the Investigatory Powers Act is compatible with fundamental rights. That’s a tall order,” said Eduardo Ustaran, partner at law firm Hogan Lovells in London.

Keeping data flowing across the Channel could get much trickier than the U.K.’s position paper, published Thursday, suggests.

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