Fergie's Tech Blog

UK: Phones Tapped at The Rate of 1,000 a Day

James Kirkup writes on The Telegraph:

Britain is in danger of becoming a "surveillance state" as authorities including councils launch bugging operations against 1,000 people a day.

Councils, police and intelligence services are tapping and intercepting the phone calls, emails and letters of hundreds of thousands of people every year, an official report said.

Those being bugged include people suspected of illegal fly-tipping as councils use little known powers to carry out increasingly sophisticated surveillance to catch offenders.

The report, by Sir Paul Kennedy, the Interception of Communications Commissioner, has fuelled fears that Britain is becoming a state where private communications are routinely monitored.

posted by Fergie @ 1/28/2008 06:54:00 PM