Privacy watchdog Privacy International has lodged a legal complaint against Britain's Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), calling for the Investigatory Powers Tribunal to outlaw hacking techniques used by the U.K. equivalent to the National Security Agency (NSA).
Snowden documents revealed that GCHQ and the NSA, working closely together, have used a variety of techniques — including keystroke logging, recording browsing histories, and commandeering device microphones and webcams — to hack into systems and retrieve the personal information on users.
In a 20-page complaint Privacy International asked the tribunal, a partially secret court, to put a halt to practices it called intrusive and unauthorized.
The programs are “ the modern equivalent of the government entering your house, rummaging through your filing cabinets…before planting bugs in every room,” Eric King, deputy director of Privacy International, said in a statement.
