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PACE "deeply concerned" with mass surveillance: report

Xinhua, January 28, 2015 Adjust font size:

"Surveillance must be targeted," Pieter Omtzigt (Netherlands, European People's Party), author of a report on massive surveillance, said in an interview with Xinhua on Tuesday.

The interview was following the adoption of his report by the Legal Affairs Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) on Monday, Jan. 26.

"With the appropriate court orders and laws, the secret service and the police would be able to break into a computer," Omtzigt said, contrasting the effectiveness of pinpointed surveillance techniques with the low return of large-scale eavesdropping.

The PACE report says the mass surveillance practices disclosed since June 2013 by U.S. whistleblower Edward Snowden "endanger fundamental human rights" and divert resources that might prevent terrorist attacks, leaving the assembly "deeply concerned."

Claimed to be part of a strategy to combat terrorism, the NSA used advanced technological techniques - such as metadata gathering and the tapping of fiber optic cables - to collect information and communications from private individuals and companies to an extent the report calls "stunning."

"I show that it's not particularly effective," Omtzigt said, referring to evidence uncovered by his investigation that information gathered by NSA programs had little impact in thwarting acts of terrorism.

Furthermore, the surveillance programs might have contributed to lower security, with valuable intelligence resources, needed for more precise counter-terrorism efforts, possibly squandered on mass surveillance programs.

Omtzigt went on to criticize the practice of creating "backdoors" in systems for intelligence services to exploit.

"When you are creating backdoors - they can also be used by terrorists - you weaken your own system. Not only the NSA can then break in, but also terrorists," Omtzigt said.

The report recommends an inquiry into Council of Europe member states' use of mass surveillance, as related to the European Convention on Human Rights. It is due to be debated by the full assembly during the PACE April session. Endit