BIG BROTHER WATCH AND OTHERS v. THE UNITED KINGDOM JUDGMENT 71. According to section 20 of RIPA, “related communications data”, in relation to a communication intercepted in the course of its transmission by means of a postal service or telecommunication system, meant “so much of any communications data as was obtained by, or in connection with, the interception”; and related “to the communication or to the sender or recipient, or intended recipient, of the communication”. 2. Warrants: section 8(4) (a) Authorisation 72. “Bulk interception” of communications was carried out pursuant to a section 8(4) warrant. Section 8(4) and (5) of RIPA allowed the Secretary of State to issue a warrant for “the interception of external communications in the course of their transmission by means of a telecommunication system”. 73. At the time of issuing a section 8(4) warrant, the Secretary of State was also required to issue a certificate setting out a description of the intercepted material which he or she considered it necessary to examine, and stating that he or she considered the examination of that material to be necessary for the reasons set out in section 5(3) (that is, that it was necessary in the interests of national security, for the purpose of preventing or detecting serious crime, or for safeguarding the economic well-being of the United Kingdom – so far as those interests are also relevant to the interests of national security; see s. 3.5 and 6.11 of the IC Code at paragraph 96 below). (b) “External” communications 74. Section 20 defined “external communication” as “a communication sent or received outside the British Islands”. 75. In the course of the Liberty proceedings, Charles Farr, the Director General of the OSCT, indicated that two people in the United Kingdom who emailed each other were engaging in “internal communication” even if the email service was housed on a server in the United States of America; however, that communication could nevertheless be intercepted as a “by-catch” of a warrant targeting external communications. On the other hand, a person in the United Kingdom who communicated with a search engine overseas was engaging in an external communication, as was a person in the United Kingdom who posted a public message (such as a tweet or Facebook status update), unless all the recipients of that message were in the British Islands. 76. Giving evidence to the ISC in October 2014, the Secretary of State for the Foreign and Commonwealth considered that: “In terms of an email, if one or both of the sender or recipient is overseas then this would be an external communication. 19