Since the London bombings of 7/7, Britain has become obsessed with security and surveillance, but it has now emerged that phones are being tapped.
Phone calls, e-mails of innocent people are also tapped by mistake: ReportLONDON: Since the London bombings of 7/7, Britain has become obsessed with security and surveillance, but it has now emerged that phones are being tapped at the phenomenal rate of 1,000 a day and it can be for something as minor as dropping rubbish in public places.
A report by the Interception of Communications Commissioner has fuelled fears that Britain is in danger of becoming a ‘surveillance state’ where private communications are routinely monitored.
The report by Sir Paul Kennedy said that along with intelligence services, 653 government bodies were able to intercept personal calls and e-mails, which include police and even local councils.
This means that lakhs of peoples have their phone calls, e-mails and letters intercepted every year.
Those being bugged can be terror suspects, but also fly-tipper (dropping rubbish), benefit fraudsters (claiming money from the state by lying about your circumstances), and rogue traders.
The report also found that many of the bugging operations were flawed and in some cases phones of innocent people were tapped because of administrative mistakes.
“Most of these operations are done for good reasons, but the numbers do raise concerns about the safeguards we have put in place to protect people from constant intrusion,” said David Winnick, a Labour member of the Commons home affairs committee.
Britain already has more CCTV cameras per person than any other country in the world. The report shows that in the last nine months of 2006, there were 2,53,557 applications to intercept private communications under surveillance laws. It is understood that most were approved.
“It beggars belief that in a nine-month period, the entire City of Westminster could have had their phones tapped — yet Britain remains one of the few Western countries that won’t allow this evidence to be used in court … to prosecute criminals and terrorists,” said Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty.
Eric Pickles, the Conservative local government spokesman, said the use of surveillance powers against suspected fly-tippers was “completely over the top”.
However the Local Government Association defended the use of the powers against people “ruining the countryside or trying to take the taxpayer for a ride”.
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