- Snooping powers given to more than 600 public bodies
look set to create a small industry of private firms that will help process
requests for information about who people call, the websites they visit
and who they swap e-mail with.
-
- Some firms are already marketing their services to the
agencies granted the snooping powers under the controversial Regulation
of Investigatory Powers Act.
-
- One firm, called Singlepoint, has been specifically created
to act as a middleman between the bodies that want access to data and the
net service providers and phone operators that hold it.
-
- Civil liberty groups said they were worried about the
emergence of such firms and said the government must police them closely
to ensure that access to sensitive information was not abused.
-
- Watch the watchers
-
- The new snooping powers and the rules governing how they
can be used came into force on 5 January and have prompted some firms to
take advantage of the new demand for data requests.
-
- "We saw an opportunity for a business or a facility
that could provide secure processing for the data requests that will come
out of this legislation," said a Singlepoint spokesman.
-
- He said without Singlepoint it would be more difficult
and costly for public authorities to request data as they would have to
set up relationships with all of the UK's communication service providers.
-
- Instead, he said, Singlepoint was setting up a system
that would automatically route requests for information to relevant net
or phone firms.
-
- He added that this system would ensure that all requests
were submitted properly and would help government watchdogs policing RIPA
requests for data.
-
- "One of the advantages we can offer is transparency
and auditability for them to check any part of the process at any time,"
he said.
-
- The Interception Commissioner is charged with making
sure that RIPA powers are not abused.
-
- The Home Office estimates that up to 500,000 requests
per year are made for information about who pays for a particular phone
or web account. About 90% of these requests are for subscriber information.
-
- Singlepoint estimates that there could be millions of
requests per year.
-
- Most of these requests are made by the police but approximately
4% are made by the many public authorities that have had new powers granted
under RIPA.
-
- A Home Office spokesman said that there were likely to
be more companies like Singlepoint that set themselves up to act as middlemen.
-
- Training day
-
- Other firms are starting to set themselves up as trainers
for people within public bodies involved with investigations.
-
- The act demands that public bodies appoint single points
of contact that will co-ordinate all requests under RIPA.
-
- It is estimated that more than 3,000 people will be designated
as these single points of contact and all must go through training programmes
to ensure they understand RIPA rules.
-
- A spokesman for the Focus Group said its training materials
were currently being evaluated by the Home Office and soon it hoped to
be offering courses to public authorities.
-
- He said the Home Office was keen to get firms offering
courses because the police did not have the resources to take on the training
of these public body workers itself.
-
- Bodies granted snooping powers include the Serious Fraud
Office, all local authorities and councils plus other organisations such
as the Charity Commission and the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and
Aquaculture Science.
-
- When proposals to grant these snooping powers were first
aired in mid-2002 they were greeted with alarm by privacy advocates and
civil liberty groups.
-
- A campaign co-ordinated by the FaxYourMP website prompted
the government to withdraw its proposals.
-
- However, following a consultation exercise the proposals
were resurrected and the powers granted in a series of statutory instruments
issued in November 2003.
-
- Danny O'Brien, of net lobby group Stand, said it would
prefer if the police were the only ones with powers to get data from phone
and net service firms.
-
- "We definitely want some public oversight over how
much power to look into private files these groups have," he said.
-
- © BBC MMIV
-
- http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3414531.stm
|
