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Report reveals ‘alarming weaknesses’ in intelligence sharing regime

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Report reveals 'alarming weaknesses' in intelligence sharing regime

A report published by Privacy International (PI) has identified “alarming weaknesses” in the oversight arrangements intended to govern the sharing of intelligence between state intelligence agencies.

‘Secret Global Surveillance Networks: Intelligence Sharing Between Governments and the Need for Safeguards’ is based on an international collaborative investigation carried out by 40 NGOs in 42 countries.

Previously undisclosed documents obtained by PI via litigation in the US under freedom of information laws shed further light on the ‘Five Eyes’ surveillance network.

The documents reveal that the US conducts surveillance while based in secret facilities in partner countries, parts of which are not even accessible to the host countries’ own governments - including their oversight bodies. They further reveal that Five Eyes sharing arrangements were amended and enhanced throughout the 2000s.

PI’s research and the responses reveal that:

  • Most countries around the world lack domestic legislation to regulate intelligence sharing. Based on the research, only one country has introduced specific legislation to explicitly regulate intelligence sharing;

  • Oversight bodies in nine out of 21 countries responded that intelligence agencies have no clear legal obligation to inform them of the intelligence sharing arrangements into which they enter. Only the oversight body of one country indicated that the intelligence agencies are required by law to provide them access to intelligence sharing arrangements.

  • None of the oversight bodies indicated that they have powers to authorise decisions to share intelligence, either at a general level, or in specific circumstances. In many of those countries, the process to authorise intelligence sharing appears to bypass any independent authority.

    • Privacy International said in a statement: “As discussed in the report, intelligence sharing constitutes an interference with the right to privacy and must therefore be subject to safeguards well-established in international human rights law, including adequate oversight.

    “Without appropriate safeguards, states can use intelligence sharing as a way to outsource surveillance, bypassing domestic constraints on their surveillance activities. Unregulated intelligence sharing can also contribute to or facilitate serious human rights abuses, such as unlawful arrest or detention, or torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.”

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