Big Brother tapping our phones and emails 1,000 times a day

NICK MCDERMOTT
UK Daily Mail
Tuesday January 29, 2008

Britain is closer to becoming a Big Brother society after it was revealed the security services and other agencies requested permission to carry out almost 1,000 bugging operations a day.

In total, the intelligence services, plus police forces, local authorities and agencies such as the serious fraud office made 253,500 requests for phone taps, the interception of emails or post in the final nine months of 2006.

Those being bugged range from suspected terrorists to potential illegal flytippers who are being monitored by councils using increasingly sophisticated surveillance to catch them breaking the law.

The report, by the Interception of Communications Commissioner Sir Paul Kennedy - a former appeal court judge - found that more than 1,000 bugging operations had been flawed.

In some instances, innocent people had their phones tapped due to administrative errors.

With Britain already possessing the highest density of CCTV cameras per person anywhere in the world, Labour MP David Winnick, a member of the Commons home affairs committee, said greater legal protection is needed to prevent abuse of surveillance powers.

He said: "Most of these operations are needed and done for good reasons, but the numbers do raise concerns about the safeguards we have put in place to protect people from constant intrusion."

Communications data has provided crucial evidence which has led to the arrest and conviction of kidnappers, rapists and paedophiles, helped prevent murders and gather intelligence on terrorism at home and abroad, the report stated.

But Sir Paul said telephone taps and other 'intercept' material should not be used in court cases, with any benefits of a change in the law 'heavily outweighed' by the disadvantages.

The Conservatives and other groups including civil rights group Liberty have argued that permitting intercept evidence in court would help convict more terrorists, as well as other serious criminals.

But the security services oppose the move because they fear it could expose their spying techniques and capabilities.

In the nine months to the end of 2006, 122 councils sought to obtain private communications in more than 1,600 cases.

Full article here.