The UK government is being sued by a group of not-for-profit Internet hosting services from around the world, over concerns that their networks were accessed to monitor users’ private data and communications.

The providers will ask for a declaration from the UK’s Investigatory Powers Tribunal that spying activities by the Government Communications Headquarters into the “computers and network assets of network providers, their staff and their users is unlawful,” lawyers on behalf of the companies said in documents filed at the tribunal today.

"The claimants are legitimately concerned about such attacks, of which they may have been, or may yet be, victims," said lawyers representing the seven companies, including UK- based GreenNet, Seattle-based Riseup Networks and the Chaos Computer Club, a hackers collective. The debate over the monitoring of computers, laptops and mobile phones to access personal data by government agencies has intensified in the 12 months since documents leaked by former US National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden exposed the extent of government spying.

This is the first time that Internet hosts have gone to court over government spying, according to Privacy International, an advocacy group set up to protect the public from government surveillance.

“These widespread attacks on providers and collectives undermine the trust we all place on the Internet and greatly endanger the world’s most powerful tool for democracy and free expression,” Eric King, deputy director of Privacy International, said in a statement. “These unlawful activities, run jointly by GCHQ and the NSA, must come to an end immediately.”

Two Green Party lawmakers have sued the UK in the same court over claims their communications were monitored by a government program known as Tempora, which was also disclosed by Snowden. The IPT will hold a five-day hearing starting July 14th to review whether the Tempora program was legal, Judge Michael Burton said in a hearing in the lawmakers' case yesterday.

Bloomberg