WIEDER AND GUARNIERI v. THE UNITED KINGDOM JUDGMENT communications interferes both with the privacy of the sender and/or recipient, and with the privacy of the communications themselves. Under the section 8(4) regime the interference with the privacy of communications clearly takes place where those communications are intercepted, searched, examined and used and the resulting injury to the privacy rights of the sender and/or recipient will also take place there. 95. Accordingly, the Court considers that the interference with the applicants’ rights under Article 8 of the Convention took place within the United Kingdom and therefore fell within the territorial jurisdiction of the respondent State. As such, it is not necessary to consider whether any of the exceptions to the territoriality principle are applicable. (c) Victim status 96. Although the Government have made no objection based on lack of victim status, the Court can examine this question ex officio, since it concerns a matter which goes to its jurisdiction (see, for example, Buzadji v. the Republic of Moldova [GC], no. 23755/07, § 70, 5 July 2016). 97. In determining victim status the Court must first have regard to the scope of the legislation permitting secret surveillance measures by examining whether applicants could possibly be affected by it, either because they belong to a group of persons targeted by the contested legislation or because the legislation directly affects all users of communication services by instituting a system where any person can have his or her communications intercepted. Where domestic law provides an effective remedy for persons who believe that their communications have been intercepted, such persons may claim to be victims of a violation occasioned by the mere existence of secret measures or of legislation permitting secret measures only if they are able to show that, due to their personal situation, they are potentially at risk of being subjected to such measures (see Roman Zakharov v. Russia [GC], no. 47143/06, § 171, ECHR 2015). 98. It follows that, in a case such as the present, where domestic law provided a remedy for all persons who believed that their communications had been intercepted (see paragraphs 28-30 above; see also Big Brother Watch and Others, cited above, § 271), potential applicants may claim to be a victim of a violation occasioned by the mere existence of the section 8(4) regime only if they are able to substantiate their claim that they belonged to a group of people who could have been directly affected by the surveillance regime, and that, due to their personal situation, their electronic communications were potentially at risk of being intercepted, stored and searched by the United Kingdom intelligence agencies pursuant to the section 8(4) regime. 99. For the purposes of the Article 8 complaint the level of persuasion necessary to establish victim status cannot be unreasonably high. The section 8(4) regime is a bulk interception regime and communications may 29