Facebook/Twitter etc "bans"

[Andrew Cormack]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: ukcrypto-bounces at chiark.greenend.org.uk [mailto:ukcrypto-
> bounces at chiark.greenend.org.uk] On Behalf Of Roland Perry
> Sent: 12 August 2011 22:28
> To: ukcrypto at chiark.greenend.org.uk
> Subject: Re: Facebook/Twitter etc "bans"
> 
> In article <4E4597FE.1080807 at zen.co.uk>, Peter Fairbrother
> <zenadsl6186 at zen.co.uk> writes
> >http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/08/09/bbm_riots/
> >
> >However,as an aside, beginning with a quote from the above:
> >
> >"When we asked RIM about this, the company provided the following
> >statement: "Similar to other technology providers we comply with the
> >Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act and co-operate fully with the
> >Home Office and UK police forces" – so one can be reasonably certain
> >that even if it wasn't logging everything before, it is now."
> >
> >But surely that would be illegal?
> >
> >Starting to log traffic so that the Police can see the logs would
> >undoubtedly be interception (either monitoring traffic or modifying
> the
> >system or more probably both) and it would not be lawful under 3(3)
> >afaics
> 
> I think there's a danger here of conflating traffic data and content.
> You can log traffic data without it being an interception.
> --
> Roland Perry

If I'm reading it correctly RIPA s22(4)(a) may allow the police to order future collection of traffic data (but not content): "if the operator is not already in possession of the data, to obtain the data". I've never heard of that power being used, so maybe I've misunderstood and it just refers to fetching existing comms data from somewhere else?

Andrew