UK Police Won't Comment On The Tracking of People's Phone Calls

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday August 7, 2014 @07:05PM from the ask-me-that-later dept.

Daniel_Stuckey writes You've maybe heard a bit about Stingray. Over the past couple of years, it has emerged that police forces in the US have been using the powerful surveillance tool, which tricks phones into connecting to a dragnet, to track mobile devices, and intercept calls and text messages. Meanwhile, the London Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) continue to remain tight lipped about their use of the technology, leaving citizens in the dark on what privacy protections, if any, are in place for those who may get swept up by the broad surveillance techniques.

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It's not extra-judicial by Bruce66423 · 2014-08-07 19:47 · Score: 4, Informative

There is an judicial organisation with responsibility for oversight of this. The question is whether they are doing their job, and whether the penalties for abuse are sufficient. Given that the answer to both is probably 'no', we clearly do have a problem, but it's too simple to say it is 'extra-judicial'.