On July 29, 2019, the High Court of England and Wales Queen's Bench Division ruled against civil liberties group Liberty in its challenge to the “bulk hacking” powers granted to the U.K. government in the 2016 Investigatory Powers Act (IPA), which allow intelligence agencies to conduct mass surveillance of electronic devices and to extract and store information. Liberty argued that such powers were “too wide” and “lack the ‘minimum safeguards’ established by the European Court of Human Rights for secret surveillance regimes.” However, the Court determined that Parliament had considered the risks of allowing “bulk” powers and consequently included “a suite of inter-locking safeguards against the possible abuse of power, including the creation of the office of the Investigatory Powers Commissioner.” The Court consequently did not agree with Liberty that the 2016 Act “does not contain sufficient safeguards against the risk of abuse of power” and found that it was not incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights as alleged.