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Privacy International launch campaign for consumers to obtain their records from telecommunications companies: Report

01 May 2003

Privacy International have launched a "Know your data" campaign in the UK to enable
people to write to their telecommunications providers asking for details of records held on
them. The campaign provides three models letters to be sent to providers. See - Privacy
International: "Know your data" campaign

From Privacy International:

"Many of the companies that supply Britain’s communications services – the landline
services, cable companies, mobile operators and Internet Service Providers – are
accumulating a vast amount of personal information about their customers. This
“communications data”, which is currently stored for up to seven years, may relate to all the
calls you have made and that you received, who you are in contact with, the geographic
location of your mobile calls, the emails you have sent and which you received, the websites
you have visited, the television programmes you have watched, personal financial data and
other personal information about you and your family.

Combined, this extraordinary array of data creates a comprehensive dossier on the
contacts, friendships, interests, transactions, movements and personal information of almost
everyone in the UK.

Communications providers do not need to retain all this information, but many of them are
doing so as a result of negotiations with the government. Law enforcement, investigative and
national security organisations have argued for years that the data is useful to detect, prevent
or prosecute criminal activity. The Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act, passed in the
months following the September 11th attacks, gives the government power to require
companies to keep this information if the companies already retain it for business purposes.
While these rules are being settled, the vast data reserves of an undisclosed number of
companies have been placed at the disposal of government. BT (to give just one example)
has fully automated its service to government to the point where any information on any BT
customer going back seven years can be obtained by any authorised government agency
merely by sending an email. 02 also keeps its data for up to seven years. Details of
hundreds of thousands of consumers involving millions of communications are surrendered
each year by communications providers.

This activity has occurred for years without legal authority and in violation of the Data
Protection Act. The Home Office attempted in 2002 to authorise under the Regulation of
Investigatory Powers Act 2000 an even more extensive list of public authorities who could
access this communications data, but following a public outcry was forced to temporarily
withdraw the proposal. This unprecedented access would have been available – as indeed it
is currently - without any judicial oversight. The Home Office is now consulting over these
issues before taking further action, but the two consultation documents it has published
indicate that the current surveillance regime is likely to be made universal.

So far as the vast majority of providers are concerned, the only issue to be resolved is the
level of subsidy that should be offered by the government for access to their customers'
information. The negotiations have been in progress for more than three years. The
communications providers have complained constantly to government that the cost of
providing this information is greater than the level of subsidy offered to them. They have said
little or nothing about the privacy rights of their customers. And yet, for years, they have
acted illegally by retaining and disclosing their customers' information.

These activities and negotiations take place in secret. Scrutiny an