UK gov issued 250k phone tap licences in nine months

You —

[quote][size=18]UK gov issued 250k phone tap licences in nine months[/size]

The regulator for Britain's snoopers has released a report covering the last nine months of 2006, painting a panglossian picture of a period which saw a quarter of a million intercepts.

From 11 April to 31 December 2006 there were 253,557 requests for communication data. In the same period there were only 1,088 errors - mostly due to incorrectly-written phone numbers.

The Interception of Communications Commissioner Sir Paul Kennedy said he saw no reason to change the current law, and indeed had only met one person while doing his job who has a different opinion. There has been some debate as to if intercepted information should be permitted as court evidence.

Kennedy makes visits to the Security Services, Secret Intelligence Service, the Serious Organised Crime Agency, the Met, HMRC, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the Home Office and Scottish Office among other agencies. He gets a complete list of all requests made by the relevant agency, then picks a random selection of warrants to check they have been properly filed.

He has also informally visited 11 communication and internet service providers. He said ISPs welcome these visits, and that "those... who work in this field have great enthusiasm in their work. They recognise the importance of it in the public interest, and the necessity of doing all their work accurately and efficiently."

Local authorities vary widely in their use of communications data. Some 474 local authorities can get phone tap and other comms data, but in the period only 122 used that power. Those 122 authorities made 1,694 requests to identify rogue traders, fly tippers and housing benefit cheats.

Kennedy said he was impressed by the "striking successes" helped by interception. Kennedy said: "It has played a key role in numerous operations including, for example, the prevention of murders, tackling large-scale drug importations, evasion of Excise duty, people smuggling, gathering intelligence both within the United Kingdom and overseas on terrorist and various extremist organisations, confiscation of firearms, serious violent crime and terrorism."

[url=http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/01/29/interception_communications_com… Register[/url][/quote]

Is it me or are those numbers pretty scary?

Forum

Noor — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 - 22:40

[quote="Irfan.Khan"]Nah its what all the ht guys say to each other. 😂 j.k[/quote]

no joke they do. they would take my phone, pull out the battery or put the phone in a sperate room from where we were sitting.

You — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 - 22:46

[quote="Noor"][quote="Irfan.Khan"]Nah its what all the ht guys say to each other. 😂 j.k[/quote]

no joke they do. they would take my phone, pull out the battery or put the phone in a sperate room from where we were sitting.[/quote]

From what I have read, the GSM network has been designed to allow eavesdropping on a phone that is in standby.

You — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 - 22:52

[quote="Irfan.Khan"]@ Noor: the only reason i said i was joking because i didnt want to offend msbro but the ht guys i met arent as extreme as that but you do get a lot of whispers.[/quote]

You should only say you are joking when you really are joking.

Not as softner, nor when you have been caught out. Just when you are joking.

MuslimBro — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 - 23:39

[quote="You"]You should only say you are joking when you really are joking.[/quote]
Agreed.

However, I think you have broken a rule.
[quote]13. We don't allow impersonation of other participants or such accounts will be removed. [/quote]

Seraphim — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 - 11:00

We're pretty sure the government were monitoring my friend.

He bought like 3/4 books off amazon (from the US) that were banned here on his card. They were political books on genocide and terrorism etc ... He had rang up all the major book suppliers here trying to get these and then resorted to buying them online.

But after he bought them, everything else he bought on that card would take forever to come. When he asked them 'Why?' he was told everytime 'Oh we're just doing some security checks.' when asked why? they said:'Oh I dont know!".

Infact he put a cheque of £5000 into his account (some guy owed him money) and 'normally' it clears in 24/48 hours... a full week later and the cheque still wasnt in his account. When he asked his bank 'Why?' they said: 'Oh we're just doing some security checks'.

lol... but convienantly I also text him that day with some random words like: Osama, Bomb, Prime Minister, Infedels & Allahuakbar!" lol as a joke... he was not impressed. 😂

You — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 - 15:54

heh, you could also use "shadier" words in real life too. When collecting something call it a package.

"You got the package" is way more suspicious than "you got the DVD/money/clothes/others goods."

From a couple fop years ago the gov did say that either 20,000 or 200,000 people were under surveillance (can't remember which - it was 2 followed by a lot of zeroes.). What makes any of you think you are not a part of the program?

A simple reason why all people who post on here may be under surveillance:

1. The UK is UNDER threat from Muslim Terrorists.
2. These terrorists are home grown.
3. Potentially these are young Muslims who have been "brainwashed".
4. The Revival targets young Muslims.
5. We have a magazine with massive circulation which could be used to gain traction with Muslims most likely to be targets of brainwashing.

I would expect atleast the regulars to have gone through a security check by now.

Or I may be thinking The Revival as being a little too important...

Joie de Vivre — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 - 17:34

Could be. I'm pretty sure I've also been monitored, it probably doesn't have to be something too serious that grabs the attention of surveillance ops. When I thought my phone calls were being eavesdropped I generally wouldn't worry. The two possibilities were that I was fantasising, and that someone was hearing my strange conversations and hopefully being entertained.

Ya'qub — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 - 17:43

Alhamdulliah, since I've become a Muslim people can spy on me as much as they like, because I don't do anything that I should be hiding (although some parts of my music collection are embarrassing...)

I should of had a lot more to fear before I was a Muslim.

I was constantly on the phone to people about someone (or something) called 'Henry'...

MuslimBro — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 - 21:04

Security checks, that's a nice way of saying we are suspicious of you.

I don't doubt The Revival is being monitored by these sados, who spend the time they wake up to the time they go to bed, going through the forums.

Maybe even one of us could be a spy [img]http://www.riderforums.com/images/smilies/blxsuspicious.gif[/img]

[img]http://www.riderforums.com/images/smilies/wave.gif[/img] -> to the person who's spying.

Joie de Vivre — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 - 21:23

[quote="MuslimBro"]I don't doubt The Revival is being monitored by these sados, who spend the time they wake up to the time they go to bed, going through the forums.[/quote]

Provided they work with integrity I don't see what's sad about security. Surely it's an important function?

Joie de Vivre — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 - 22:09

What kind of security would they be if they didn't try to identify threats? It's only hypothetical - although I think likely - that they check Muslim websites like this, but I doubt they consider it a particularly fertile source of suspects. Still, why would you call them sados? I think only a lot of people who are just on the fringes of the jihad thing - supporting HT or whatever but not a specific threat - particularly buy that there's anything wrong with the work of police and security in general. That's not a comment on you, but I do think that's where the disrespect comes from.

As for where the limits of snooping should fall, that's a different thing and probably the reason Admin found this interesting. Not to suggest that using the internet for intel is sad. I think it's vital, and helped to prevent carnage in a number of instances.

Joie de Vivre — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 - 22:25

[quote="Ya'qub"]I think Joey didn't quite understand what MB was talking about.

SADOS stands for Security And Detection Of Suspected-terrorists[/quote]

Don't you start! (Subtly Try And Redefine Terrorists to include your average Ya'qub)

Joie de Vivre — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 - 22:31

[quote="Irfan.Khan"]Im a fundamentalist muslim has anybody got a problem with that?[/quote]

Yeah!

Seriously, you're being provocative, but obviously there's a problem with certain strands of politics in Islam - there's a problem with certain strands of politics everywhere - and those strands have been labelled "fundamentalist", so what's the point of trying to reclaim a label you would never have used anyway?