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A comment on UK spies using social media data for mass surveillance. Parent comment

Re:UK spies using social media data for mass surveillance by whiteandnerdy on Wednesday October 18, 2017 @02:43AM (#15497356)
Yes, I believe so.

Definition of sensitive data: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1998/29/section/2

Some legal restrictions on processing said data: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1998/29/part/II

However, it's not clear to me to what degree, if any, security agencies are exempt from the Data Protection Act.

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Re:UK spies using social media data for mass surveillance by pja on Wednesday October 18, 2017 @03:57AM (#15497586)
There's a sweeping exemption from the DPA for the purposes of "national security". Any minister can issue a certificate stating that a given activity is for the purposes of national security and therefore exempt & these certificates can be issued retrospectively.

It's all laid out in section 28 of the DPA: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1998/29/section/28

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Re:UK spies using social media data for mass surveillance by lostboys67 on Wednesday October 18, 2017 @09:39AM (#15499009)
but there are also protections e.g. if they come across evidence of stuff that is not related to national security it is ignored.
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Re:UK spies using social media data for mass surveillance by 103e on Wednesday October 18, 2017 @06:34AM (#15498045)
I wonder if their industry partners are similarly indemnified...
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