That's the Snoopers' Charter in action for you Gareth Corfield Mon 8 Feb 2021 // 16:34 UTC Share Copy British prosecutors can make use of evidence gathered by the French and Dutch police from encrypted messaging service EncroChat’s servers thanks to a legal interpretation of whether RAM counts as data storage, the Court of Appeal has ruled. The judgment, handed down on the afternoon of 5 February, has far-reaching repercussions for criminal defendants identified and arrested on suspicion of serious crimes – with their identification being possible thanks to police reading the contents of their messages. In addition, the judgment also sheds more light on Britain’s Byzantine and occasionally opaque surveillance laws, which regulate how police can lawfully spy on people.