FYI: The Register | Phorm failed to mention 'illegal' trialsat Home Office meeting in 2007.

[Chris Salter]

Hello Ukcrypto,

FYI: The Register | Phorm failed to mention 'illegal' trials at Home Office meeting in 2007.
By Chris Williams.
Published Wednesday 18th June 2008 12:59 GMT.

Begin opening paragraphs.

Exclusive. The Home Office held a private meeting with Phorm in August
last year, but BT's interception and profiling partner did not
disclose that it had completed an allegedly illegal trial of its
technology on tens of thousands of unwitting broadband subscribers
just weeks earlier.

Senior civil servant Andrew Knight revealed the meeting had taken
place in a response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOI) request from
a member of the public, passed to The Register. Today, the Home Office
said it had no knowledge of the secret interceptions until we revealed
the 2007 trial on 27 February and the 2006 trial on 1 April this year.
BT reps were not present, Knight's note implied.

The Home Office refused to disclose further details of who was present
at the August 2007 meeting with Phorm, how it was arranged, or what
was discussed, saying that the information remained the subject of an
ongoing FOI inquiry.

The trials have been widely branded a criminal interception on a grand
scale, under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA).
Phorm refers all questions on the legality of the action to BT, which
in turn refuses to comment beyond stating that it took legal advice.

End opening paragraphs.

For Full Text see
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/18/home_office_phorm_meetings/


-- 
 Chris Salter                      mailto:ukcrypto@originalthinktank.org.uk
 Cornwall United Kingdom        http://www.originalthinktank.org.uk/