Liberties fear over mobile phone details - The Guardian (fwd)

[Owen Blacker]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> To: mark-thomas@gbnet.net
> Date: Sun, 28 Oct 2001 11:40:37 -0000
> Subject: [mt] Liberties fear over mobile phone details - The Guardian
>
> Liberties fear over mobile phone details
>
> Records which map out users' whereabouts held indefinitely
>
> Stuart Millar and Paul Kelso
> Saturday October 27, 2001
> The Guardian
>
> One of the fastest growing mobile phone providers is indefinitely
> storing information that allows its customers' movements over the
> last two years to be mapped to within a few hundred metres.
>
> As the government rushes through emergency anti-terror legislation
> that would require vast amounts of electronic communications data to
> be retained in the name of national security, the Guardian has
> established that Virgin Mobile has been storing the location records
> of its 1m customers since the network launched in November 1999.
>
> Last night, the privacy watchdog, the information commissioner, told
> the Guardian that it would be investigating the practice to
> establish whether it contravenes regulations governing retention of
> communications data.
>
> When calls are made or received on a mobile phone, the call is
> automatically logged at the nearest base station through a "locator
> code", allowing the networks to track the geographical usage pat
> terns of their customers. In urban areas where there is a high
> density of base stations, the information is currently accurate to
> within a few hundred metres. When the new breed of 3G - third
> generation - phones comes on stream, probably next year, they will
> enable the users' location to be pinpointed to within a couple of
> metres.
>
> Current regulations do not specifically cover location data, dealing
> only with the broad areas of traffic and billing data. Data
> protection legislation, however, requires companies to ensure that
> personal information about individuals is processed for limited
> purposes and is not kept for longer than is necessary.
>
> Virgin Mobile is co-owned by Sir Richard Branson and One2One, which
> provides the network infrastructure.
>
> A spokeswoman told the Guardian: "As we are a virtual network, the
> phone locator codes of Virgin Mobile customers are stored for us by
> One2One. These codes have been stored since launch - ie almost two
> years - and there are no plans to destroy this data for the
> foreseeable future."
>
> She said they were required to keep the information for billing
> purposes for up to six years under financial regulations.
>
> But Vodafone, Britain's biggest network, by contrast, retains the
> data for only a year for billing purposes, to prevent fraud or help
> police investigations. BT Cellnet failed to respond to requests for
> information about their policies. Orange refused to say what data
> they retained but said their policy was in accordance with
> regulatory requirements.
>
> The Virgin revelation has appalled civil liberties campaigners.
> Caspar Bowden, director of the independent think-tank, the
> Foundation for Information Policy Research, said there was a serious
> danger that the information could be misused.
>
> "Sensitive data revealing where you are, and who you talk to could
> be pulled into a central databases for public demonstrations, health
> and safety, tax, or minor crime," he said. "Collecting the streams
> of thought of the population and processing them by computer is a
> good definition of a police state."
>
> Campaigners were already concerned about the human rights
> implications of the home secretary, David Blunkett's emergency
> anti-terror bill. It includes "measures to enable communication
> service providers to retain data generated in the course of their
> business, namely the records of calls made and other data", although
> not the content.
>
> Home Office and communications industry officials met on Wednesday
> to discuss a voluntary code of practice under which companies would
> be required to retain data for an extended period "in the interests
> of protecting national security".
>
> A Home Office spokeswoman said that electronic communication data
> had been crucial to the investigation into the September 11 attacks,
> and that the industry had co-operated with British police and FBI
> requests for information. "What we're seeking to do is work with the
> industry to extend the period over which information is retained."
>
> Acccess to that information is governed by the Regulation of
> Investigatory Powers Act, which allows law enforcement agencies to
> access the companies' records.
>
> But critics say the measures will only be effective in tracking the
> movements and communications traffic of law-abiding citizens because
> they will be easily circumvented by terrorists or serious criminals.
>
> "Professional terrorists know how to cover their tracks, for example
> they use pre-paid mobile phones once and throw them away," said Mr
> Bowden. "Reports of the September 11 hijackers indicate they used
> web-based email from public terminals. It is not persuasive to argue
> for privacy to be sacrificed in the name of fighting terrorism if
> the measures would not be effective."

+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
|                   The Mark Thomas Mailing List                     |
| To subscribe send mail to <Majordomo@gbnet.net> with the following |
| command in the body of the email message: 'subscribe mark-thomas'. |
| Should you have any queries contact <owner-mark-thomas@gbnet.net>  |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: PGP 7.0.4
Comment: Due to RIP, check for revocation before use

iQA/AwUBO9x6fUIjmaa0joBeEQK+YACeM2+8CGZ5XDciKALLyd/FkI3PNEgAni0y
WedIMNz2MziRCS14fJC1+mVc
=w3fg
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----