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  • PRIVACY

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    Watch our short film about
    wandering data

    Since the Human Rights Act (1998) brought the rights agreed upon in the European Convention on Human Rights into domestic law, UK citizens have had a right to privacy.

    Article 8 – the right to respect for private and family life, home and correspondence - provides protection in our private sphere, and can extend into our working lives and encompass matters relating to our identity, independence and autonomy.


    Privacy in the UK


    The balance between the privacy of the individual and interests such as national security, crime prevention, and freedom of expression, is far from settled.

    The extent of a right to privacy in the UK and its weight in relation to competing values is unclear. Current laws protect some aspects of privacy but disregard others.

    Liberty is concerned with how the state, the press and others strike the balance between privacy and other interests.


    Key Privacy Issues


    Certain themes have emerged around personal privacy in recent years, including:


    ID Cards and the National Identity Register

    The government’s ID card scheme will establish a system involving collection and retention of personal information on an unprecedented scale. The ID card will be linked to the National Identity Register, and hold over fifty pieces of information about every individual.


    Mass surveillance and data profiling

    Massive growth in the scale of and use of information held in government databases, without an accompanying update of the legal privacy protection framework.


    Increase in targeted surveillance

    State sanctioned surveillance against specific targets takes place on a massive scale, using the broad and confusing framework created under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA).


    National DNA Database

    The number of DNA profiles held on the DNA database increased by 40% between 2007 and 2009 and has now topped 4.5 million. The NDNAD is the largest per capita DNA database in the world and contains DNA the profiles of many who have never been charged, let alone convicted, with any offence.


    Closed Circuit Television

    Britain is monitored by over 4 million CCTV cameras, with little formal regulation of CCTV usage.

    • Government announces innocents will continue to be held on DNA database

    • Despite widespread opposition, the Home Office announced today plans to retain innocents DNA for six years. Innocent 16 and 17 years olds arrested for a serious crime will be treated the same as adults. All other children arrested but not convicted of any offence will have their profiles held for 3 years.
    • 11.11.2009

    • Secretive surveillance powers openly challenged for the first time

    • A hearing examining the controversial use of covert surveillance by a local authority begins today. This landmark case is the first time these powers – granted to local authorities under the controversial Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) – will be challenged at an open hearing before the Investigatory Powers Tribunal.
    • 05.11.2009

    • Sensible and tactical retreat by Government on DNA

    • The Home Office announced today that the clauses on DNA retention will be dropped from the Policing and Crime Bill and reconsidered after the Queen’s Speech. The clauses provided a regulation power that would have allowed sweeping retention of innocents’ DNA to continue.
    • 19.10.2009

    • Diane Abbott MP and Liberty hold DNA clinic in Hackney

    • Today the country’s first ‘DNA clinic’ launches in Hackney, giving free legal assistance to young people whose profiles have been unfairly added to the DNA database. Diane Abbott and Liberty lawyers will provide help and advice to those who want their DNA profiles removed from the national database.
    • 24.09.2009

Reclaim Your DNA

Have you or your child been arrested and had your DNA and fingerprints taken by the police? Reclaim your DNA.
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Privacy in Britain

Overlooked Report
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  • Your Rights

  • Our Your Rights website has all the information you need about the law and your privacy.