Reino Unido y sistemas de vigilancia: la STEDH Big Brother Watch, de 25 de mayo de 2021

Abstract

Almost three years after its first ruling condemning the United Kingdom for its mass surveillance systems, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) now confirms this condemnation in Grand Chamber. The ECtHR again concludes that mass surveillance systems as such do not contravene the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), but that the UK is in breach of the ECHR because of the deficiencies detected in its systems. The ECtHR does not make a categorical pronouncement and, although it goes a step further by specifying the guarantees that these systems must comply with, it continues to leave the door open to the use of mass surveillance systems as long as they comply with the aforementioned guarantees and are used in a proportionate manner, and also opens the door to the exchange of information between the intelligence systems of the States, thus delegating to national discretion its use to prevent, especially, possible terrorist attacks in a globalized and technified world such as ours. Nothing new under the sun considering the drift that the ECtHR is taking in its latest pronouncements.