Government Spied on 500,000 UK Citizens Last Year

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The Government last year gave permission to intercept the phone calls, letters and emails of more than 500,000 British citizens, a new report has revealed.

The annual report of interception of communications commissioner, Sir Paul Kennedy, showed the Governments interception programme targets people in the UK and overseas.

More than 600 central, local and quasi government bodies are entitled to ask for, and intercept data, he said. This is related mainly to who contacted whom, where and when.

Sir Paul said public authorities made 504,073 requests for communications data to communications and internet service providers under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA). This was slightly fewer than in the previous year.

In the same period 595 errors were reported. About three quarters were attributable to public authorities and the rest to communication service providers (CSPs) and internet service providers (ISPs).

He said errors could have catastrophic consequences for individuals. In one case, police investigating a paedophile ring asked an ISP for subscriber information relating to an internet protocol (IP) address, but received the wrong physical address. As a result, police arrested a person who was completely innocent, he said.

In this case there was confusion between the ISP and the public authority over how the data should be interpreted, particularly in relation to the critical international time zones. Better checks and balances have been put in place to help clarify the process, he said.

Sir Paul maintained his opposition to the use of intercept evidence in trials. He said live tests of a proposed system in March and April had highlighted legal and operational difficulties. I cannot see a way to safely overcome these, he said.

The figures mean that around one in 78 adults are spied on each year. There are approximately 1,400 interceptions of email, telephone or mail communications every day.

* RIPA was put in place to give authorities access to communications data, such as emails and telephone calls, in order to help fight terrorism and organised crime. Although the law does not allow authorities access to the content of messages or calls, they can request data such as the sender, recipient or time.

Although the majority of requests were made by the police and security services, local councils have been accused of using the powers for trivial matters; including spying on people for littering and dog fouling.

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• eu
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[V4vendetta1987]

I don't know if this is connected, but in northeast Oklahoma, I have discovered tall poles with antenna on top being placed just outside several small towns. These poles are about twice the heigth of the utility poles that carry the electric lines. Could they be listening posts or something like that? Look in Narcissa, Ok, & just east of Bluejacket, Ok, and just southeast of Welch, Ok. The poles are in line with the electric lines on the side of the road.