Open Rights Group response to GCHQ Director’s claim that tech companies are aiding terrorists

Open Rights Group has responded to an FT comment piece by the Director of GCHQ, Robert Hannigan, in which he calls for “greater co-operation from technology companies’, who are in his words, “the command and control networks of choice” for terrorists.

Executive Director Jim Killock said:

“Robert Hannigan’s comments are divisive and offensive. If tech companies are becoming more resistant to GCHQ’s demands for data, it is because they realise that their customers’ trust has been undermined by the Snowden revelations. It should be down to judges, not GCHQ nor tech companies, to decide when our personal data is handed over to the intelligence services. If Hannigan wants a ‘mature debate’ about privacy, he should start by addressing GCHQ’s apparent habit of gathering the entire British population’s data rather than targeting their activities towards criminals.”

For more information, email press@openrightsgroup.org