Bulk Personal Datasets collected by UK government includes solicitor client privileged information

Bulk Personal Datasets collected by UK government includes solicitor client privileged information

A human rights watchdog - Privacy International - has obtained a cache of documents which shed light on UK’s controversial bulk personal datasets or BPDs. The BPDs are collections of personal data of people, most of whom do not present any particular interest for intelligence services. Their existence has been kept in secret for years, and little was known about the way the intelligence obtains and handles such information. But the newly released documents of the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters include a vast range of details on internal policies and procedures regarding BDPs. They cover a ten-year-long period from June 2005 to May 2015, and were released in response to a legal challenge filed by Privacy International last year. In particular, they provide information about what sort of personal information is included in BDPs, how it is categorized and acquired. According to the documents, the data is obtained through third-party voluntary suppliers. The key categories include info on one's biography, travels, finances and communications. Radio Sputnik linked up with Yair Cohen, London-based lawyer, an internet law specialist with the law firm Cohen Davis Solicitors, who explained to us how this information is supplied.