Posts Tagged ‘Illegal’
2009
“Local authorities are still illegally spying on individuals despite curbs imposed on their covert activities, the senior official charged with scrutinising their activities said today.
The disclosure appears in the latest annual report by Sir Christopher Rose, the chief surveillance commissioner. He said it was ‘of significant concern’ that councils were conducting covert surveillance of individuals for purposes now banned under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act, Ripa.
Local councils were authorised to conduct nearly 5,000 ‘directed surveillance’ missions in the year to the end of March, he revealed. Almost 5,000 were also carried out by other public authorities, including Whitehall departments.
‘Directed surveillance’ is defined as ‘covert surveillance of individuals while in a public place for the purposes of a specific investigation’. Such surveillance can be used only for the ‘protection or detection of crime or of preventing disorder’…”
via guardian.co.uk