Is virus scanning interception?

[Richard Clayton]

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

In article <200207170845.15048.graham.todd@ntlworld.com>, Graham
<graham.todd@ntlworld.com> writes

>Common Sense says its interception when the mail is stopped, but interception 
>AS DEFINED BY THE RIP ACT doesn't take place unless it is stopped and 
>examined.  

nope... what the Act says is "make some or all of the contents of the
communication available, while being transmitted, to a person other than
the sender or intended recipient of the communication"

Peter is arguing that "examined" by a program is covered by this
definition in the Act, but almost no-one (from Lord Bassam down) is
agreeing with him -- except that a draft document from the Data
Protection people appears to support Peter's view.

Since the DP document is currently being consulted upon I'd expect some
comments to be sent to Wilmslow pointing out that that it's at odds with
most people's understanding.

>What I have some difficulty with is the idea that mail can be 
>stopped without being examined, if you are scanning for virii, trojan horses, 
>porn, or even simply key words.

I've never heard of people using zero knowledge proofs for such things,
so yes - it is being examined. However, that's not the test that the Act
applies.

>Which brings up another question: if you scan for packets (such as a software 
>firewall does) irrespective of whether those packets constitute any 
>particular type of traffic, is it interception?

If you discard them, no. If you print them out on A4 and post them in
the hallway, then yes. Even in the latter case, RIP (and secondary
legislation) may make it a lawful interception -- though one of the
reasons for taking note of some other parts of the Data Protection
document is to make people aware that you may be running into trouble
with other laws.

- -- 
richard                                              Richard Clayton

Are you a Friend of FIPR yet?       http://www.fipr.org/friends.html

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: PGPsdk version 1.7.1

iQA/AwUBPTUzRhfnRQV/feRLEQLzxwCbB+WrWzY3jmvRVetSQkU5XB1Vm2EAnjqS
+Z5jInwfU2cYPBJbZZXGzmKW
=Q1sw
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----