article_snippet: Today's long awaited report into Britain's surveilance powers was sparked by the Edward Snowden revelations .
article_snippet: Intelligence and Security Committee said the central claims made by the Guardian newspaper on the back of documents stolen by American whistle-blower Edward Snowden were wrong and the central claims made by the Guardian newspaper on the back of documents stolen by American whistle-blower Edward Snowden cleared the Government’s listening station of wrongdoing.
article_snippet: Tory MP Mark Field, a member of Intelligence and Security Committee, said: ‘The big mistake that American whistle-blower Edward Snowden and the Guardian made in the Guardian coverage was to equate bulk data with bulk surveillance.
article_snippet: ‘That point was never really made by the Guardian, who gave the impression that with every phone call, every email and every text message, the public had a spy on the public shoulder.
article_snippet: Labour MP Hazel Blears said the ‘two main claims’ made off the back of the American whistle-blower Edward Snowden leaks were untrue and surveillance was neither blanket nor indiscriminate.
article_snippet: It is that lack of transparency that leads to people reaching the conclusion that there is blanket surveillance, indiscriminate surveillance.
article_snippet: Some of those who gave evidence to this inquiry said ‘the agencies are monitoring the whole stream all the time’, referring to the ‘apparent ubiquity of surveillance’. '
article_snippet: Snowden, who was a computer specialist at an intelligence centre in Hawaii, released 1.7million files in one of the biggest security leaks in US history.
article_snippet: No doubt it would be simpler if we went along with the spies’ motto of “no scrutiny for we, no privacy for you”
article_snippet: A Guardian spokesman said: ‘The Snowden revelations provoked a global debate about the role of intelligence and surveillance in the free world, and the extent to which The Snowden revelations should be the subject of democratic and judicial oversight.
article_snippet: Following the recent Investigatory Powers Tribunal ruling, the recent Investigatory Powers Tribunal ruling is now clear that the GCHQ and NSA mass surveillance programmes revealed by Snowden were illegal.
highlights_snippet: But it is 'unavoidable that some innocent communications' are snooped on .
  