UK spies can turn phones into bugs

02 December 2015 - 02:27 By Bloomberg, AFP

British spies fighting Paris-style terror attacks deploy cyber-snooping technology that turns your smartphone into a mobile bug, privacy campaigners warned at a London trial into allegations that the UK tramples on citizens' rights. The technique, described as computer and network exploitation by Britain's Government Communications Headquarters, is so effective that having a smartphone is akin to "carrying around a bug with you", Ben Jaffey, a lawyer representing an advocacy group and nonprofit internet hosting services, said at the start of the privacy trial."CNE can achieve results that are at least as intrusive as if the targeted individual were to have his house bugged, his home searched, his communications intercepted and a tracking device fitted to his person," he said in court documents on behalf of seven companies, including UK-based GreenNet, Seattle-based Riseup Networks, and the Chaos Computer Club, a hackers collective.Governments and courts across the world are grappling with how to balance the right to privacy with the need to protect national security in the wake of Islamist terror attacks such as last month's bloodbath in Paris that claimed 130 lives.GCHQ confirmed it carries out CNE operations in the UK and abroad to counter the increased threat of a terrorist attack and to protect "its citizens in a digital age". The authorities aren't involved in any unlawful and indiscriminate mass surveillance, it said in court filings.The US government has halted its programme to collect vast troves of information from Americans' phone calls, a move prompted by the revelations of former intelligence analyst Edward Snowden. ..

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