Big Brother Watch is a non-profit non-party British

civil liberties Civil liberties are guarantees and freedoms that governments commit not to abridge, either by constitution, legislation, or judicial interpretation, without due process. Though the scope of the term differs between countries, civil liberties ma ...

and

privacy Privacy (, ) is the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves or information about themselves, and thereby express themselves selectively. The domain of privacy partially overlaps with security, which can include the concepts of ...

campaigning organisation. It was launched in 2009 by founding director Alex Deane to campaign against state surveillance and threats to civil liberties. It was founded by Matthew Elliott. The organisation campaigns on a variety of issues including: the rise of the

surveillance state Mass surveillance is the intricate surveillance of an entire or a substantial fraction of a population in order to monitor that group of citizens. The surveillance is often carried out by local and federal governments or governmental organizatio ...

, police use of oppressive technology, freedom and privacy online, the use of intrusive communications interception powers including the

Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 ( c.23) (RIP or RIPA) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, regulating the powers of public bodies to carry out surveillance and investigation, and covering the interception of com ...

, and the Investigatory Powers Act, the protection of personal information and wider data protection issues. The organisation is headquartered in the China Works building,

Vauxhall Vauxhall ( ) is a district in South West London, part of the London Borough of Lambeth, England. Vauxhall was part of Surrey until 1889 when the County of London was created. Named after a medieval manor, "Fox Hall", it became well known for ...

, London, and previously at

55 Tufton Street 55 Tufton Street is a four-storey Georgian-era townhouse on historic Tufton Street, in Westminster, London, owned by businessman Richard Smith. Since the 2010s the building has hosted a network of libertarian lobby groups and think tanks re ...

, London. The name "Big Brother Watch" originates from

George Orwell Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950), better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English novelist, essayist, journalist, and critic. His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to totalit ...

's novel ''

Nineteen Eighty-Four ''Nineteen Eighty-Four'' (also stylised as ''1984'') is a dystopian social science fiction novel and cautionary tale written by the English writer George Orwell. It was published on 8 June 1949 by Secker & Warburg as Orwell's ninth and fina ...

'', published in 1949.

Founding

The group was established in late 2009 and the official launch took place in January 2010 with

Tony Benn Anthony Neil Wedgwood Benn (3 April 1925 – 14 March 2014), known between 1960 and 1963 as Viscount Stansgate, was a British politician, writer and diarist who served as a Cabinet minister in the 1960s and 1970s. A member of the Labour Party, ...

and David Davis as guest speakers.

Silkie Carlo Silkie Carlo (born 1989) has been the director of the British civil liberties NGO Big Brother Watch since 2018. She worked on the defence fund for Edward Snowden and appears in the 2020 American documentary film ''Coded Bias''. With Arjen Kamph ...

is the Director, since January 2018.

Reports and campaigns

In 2012, Big Brother Watch shut down its website in protest at the

Stop Online Piracy Act The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) was a controversial proposed United States congressional bill to expand the ability of U.S. law enforcement to combat online copyright infringement and online trafficking in counterfeit goods. Introduced on O ...

and PROTECT IP Act proposed United States legislation, warning that similar plans may be proposed in the UK. Big Brother Watch was part of the anti-surveillance coalition Don't Spy On Us, which campaigned against the proposed bulk communications collection powers and lack of judicial safeguards in the

Investigatory Powers Bill The Investigatory Powers Act 2016 (c. 25) (nicknamed the Snoopers' Charter) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which received royal assent on 29 November 2016. Its different parts came into force on various dates from 30 December 2 ...

, now Investigatory Powers Act, in 2015 and 2016. In 2017, Big Brother Watch took a case against the United Kingdom, together with

Open Rights Group The Open Rights Group (ORG) is a UK-based organisation that works to preserve digital rights and freedoms by campaigning on digital rights issues and by fostering a community of grassroots activists. It campaigns on numerous issues including m ...

and

English PEN Founded in 1921, English PEN is one of the world's first non-governmental organisations and among the first international bodies advocating for human rights. English PEN was the founding centre of PEN International, a worldwide writers' associat ...

, to the

European Court of Human Rights The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR or ECtHR), also known as the Strasbourg Court, is an international court of the Council of Europe which interprets the European Convention on Human Rights. The court hears applications alleging that ...

arguing that British surveillance laws infringed British citizens'

right to privacy The right to privacy is an element of various legal traditions that intends to restrain governmental and private actions that threaten the privacy of individuals. Over 150 national constitutions mention the right to privacy. On 10 December 194 ...

. In 2017 and 2018, the organisation campaigned against police retention of innocent people's custody images (also known as

mugshots A mug shot or mugshot (an informal term for police photograph or booking photograph) is a photographic portrait of a person from the shoulders up, typically taken after a person is arrested. The original purpose of the mug shot was to allow law ...

) and police use of facial recognition technology. In 2018 they supported a debate in the

House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by appointment, heredity or official function. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminst ...

which noted the intrusive nature of this technology, the lack of a legal basis or parliamentary scrutiny, and the possibility that it may be incompatible with Article 8 right to privacy under the ECHR. In July 2018, the organisation brought a legal challenge against the

Metropolitan Police Service The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), formerly and still commonly known as the Metropolitan Police (and informally as the Met Police, the Met, Scotland Yard, or the Yard), is the territorial police force responsible for law enforcement and ...

and the

Secretary of State for the Home Department The secretary of state for the Home Department, otherwise known as the home secretary, is a senior minister of the Crown in the Government of the United Kingdom. The home secretary leads the Home Office, and is responsible for all national ...

. In 2019, Big Brother Watch has also campaigned to protect victims of crime from 'digital strip searches' of their mobile phones by police, especially victims of sexual violence. They campaigned alongside other rights and justice groups including

End Violence Against Women End Violence Against Women Coalition (EVAW) is a UK-based coalition of individuals and organisations which campaigns to end all forms of violence against women. It was founded in 2005 and became a registered charity 31 March 2015. History The ...

Rape Crisis England and Wales Rape Crisis England and Wales is the national umbrella organisation for Rape Crisis Centres across England and Wales. As a registered charity, Rape Crisis also works to raise awareness of sexual violence and campaign for change. Services Rape C ...

and the Centre for Women's Justice. In 2019, Big Brother Watch investigated and succeeded in getting HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) to delete over 5 million people's

voice biometrics Speaker recognition is the identification of a person from characteristics of voices. It is used to answer the question "Who is speaking?" The term voice recognition can refer to ''speaker recognition'' or speech recognition. Speaker verification ...

, which had been collected without people's consent or knowledge, in breach of data protection laws, from a HMRC database. It is believed to be the biggest ever deletion of biometric IDs from a state-held database. The organisation has published reports investigating police access to people's personal mobile phone information, police use of body worn cameras, surveillance technology in schools and the use of outdated communications laws to prosecute internet speech. It has carried out investigations into local authority data handling, finding more than 1000 incidents in which councils lost information about children and those in care.

Board

Paul Strasburger, Baron Strasburger Paul Cline Strasburger, Baron Strasburger (born 31 July 1946) is a British Liberal Democrat politician, millionaire philanthropist and semi-retired businessman. Involvement with the Liberal Democrats Strasburger first became involved in the Libe ...

* Dinah Rose KC * Mark Littlewood *Al Ghaff *Tim Knox

References

External links

* {{Official website, https://bigbrotherwatch.org.uk/
Official YouTube Channel
Civil liberties advocacy groups Mass surveillance Organisations based in the London Borough of Lambeth Political advocacy groups in the United Kingdom Privacy organizations 2009 establishments in the United Kingdom