Ask GCHQ if it’s spied on you

PLEASE give your consideration to a petition circulated by Privacy International, who are calling for the Investigatory Powers Tribunal to ask GCHQ whether it has spied on them (all the petitioners) illegally. So - unusually for a petition - you stand to actually get something for yourself in return for signing it, with an opportunity for a potentially interesting bit of data journalism.

The suspicious proximity of this "Audio Surveillance Zone" on the wall of a street in Whitechapel to the London Met's Cass School of Art leads us to believe it to be the work of art students. Photo: © Matt Salusbury

This follows a recent ruling that the "sharing" of intelligence between GCHQ and the NSA before last December was illegal. (Those acronyms would be the Government Communications Headquarters, Cheltenham, UK and the National Security Agency, Fort Meade, Maryland, US, respectively.)

The petition warns you that by signing it, you allow your name to be passed on to GCHQ for the purpose of determining whether they spied on you. But they probably have your details (and more) already - on the assumption that you have ever made a phone call, sent an email or used the internet. The petition's here. The Freelance would be interested to hear from signatories who ultimately get any kind of result.

© Matt Salusbury