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Poole borough council has reportedly used surveillance laws to check on a local fisherman gathering shellfish in the harbour.
Council officials admitted using the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA), which allows covert surveillance, to monitor illegal harvesting of clams and cockles.
Fishing in Poole harbour is prohibited by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) on grounds of pollution and public health.
Tim Martin from the council said that they had used entirely legal powers to prevent any behaviour that could "damage our local communities or threaten Poole's natural environment".
However, Shami Chakrabarti, director of human rights group Liberty, told the Guardian that "you do not use a sledgehammer to crack a nut".
"You can care about serious crime and terrorism without throwing away our personal privacy."
"The law must be reformed to require 'sign-off' by judges, not self-authorisation by over-zealous bureaucrats," she added.
Poole officials admitted using the legislation 17 times since 2005, including checking whether a family was actually living in a particular school catchment area.
