Looking through a legal PRISM at UK and US intelligence agency surveillance

The uncovering of the PRISM programme has concerned many that the UK authorities are circumventing the legal framework and gathering data on its own citizens via US surveillance agencies. Orla Lynskey describes the statutory controls that exist regarding data sharing with the US and explores whether they are adequate to protect UK citizens’ privacy. She concludes that there are little safeguards and redress opportunities for non-US persons, and that EU Data Protection regulation is, at present, toothless once international data transfers have been made. On the bright side, the revelation has brought the issue of government surveillance to the fore.