Bill Goodwin

The Court of Appeal finds that the Investigatory Powers Tribunal has no power to award costs against Northern Ireland police despite ‘unreasonable conduct’ by the force

Operational pressures do not reduce the need for lawful and consistent safeguards, says Investigatory Powers Commissioner’s Office (IPCO)

Court of Appeal to decide whether Investigatory Powers Tribunal has powers to award compensation for legal costs to victims of unlawful surveillance

Northern Ireland journalist subject to unlawful communications surveillance seeks damages from police in Northern Ireland in high court claim for data protection breaches and harassment

UK government argues that national security would be damaged if it departs from ‘neither confirm nor deny policy’ on Apple ‘backdoor’ notice

Computer Weekly's Bill Goodwin has seen both sides of the courtroom during a career spent exposing the surveillance state and protecting those who wish to let the world know its secrets

Congress warns that the UK’s unprecedented secrecy over a ‘backdoor’ surveillance order against Apple is straining relations between the two countries

A poll of 2,000 UK citizens taken after the government issued a secret order seeking access to Apple users’ encrypted data finds that the public is sceptical of government surveillance powers

Computer Weekly reveals for the first time how French cyber spies hacked EncroChat phones used by organised crime groups

Apple has filed another legal complaint over a secret Home Office order requiring the supplier to provide access to encrypted iCloud data stored by UK customers

Northern Ireland police monitored phone communications of former BBC security editor Brian Rowan after he wrote about a police and MI5 agent in Northern Ireland

The Security Service, MI5 and the Police Service of Northern Ireland have been ordered to pay damages to a former BBC journalist, Vincent Kearney, following multiple attempts to identify his confidential sources

Police and MI5 conducted seven unlawful operations to obtain phone data relating to former BBC journalist Vincent Kearney, the Investigatory Powers Tribunal heard today

The UK and Europe are ramping up opposition to encryption and stepping up surveillance of private communications. Here is what to expect this year

A transatlantic row between the UK and the Trump administration erupted after the UK attempted to force Apple to break its advanced encryption. That was just one of a series of stories reporting on the tension between state surveillance and privacy this year

MI5 discloses it made and authorised unlawful ‘sequential applications’ for Vincent Kearney’s phone data during his time at the BBC, but will neither confirm nor deny whether it undertook further ‘lawful’ surveillance of BBC journalists

Investigatory Powers Tribunal rules that Apple’s appeal against the Home Office will no longer proceed because of a ‘change in circumstances’

The PSNI has commissioned a senior lawyer to report back on whether there was any misconduct by police officers following the McCullough review into surveillance of journalists, lawyers and NGOs.

New Home Office Technical Capability Notice (TCN) requires Apple to provide access to encrypted data and messages of British users stored on Apple's cloud service.

A review by Angus McCullough KC reveals that Northern Ireland police failed to comply with the law but that there was no ‘widespread and systemic’ surveillance of journalists, lawyers and NGOs