British report reveals over 500,000 domestic spying requests in 2008

ICC report

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
An annual report published Monday by Britain’s Interception of Communications Commissioner has revealed that UK government agencies made 504,073 official requests for communications data of citizens in 2008. The report by Sir Paul Kennedy shows that UK authorities authorized every single one of the half a million requests for access to telephone and email traffic data, such as phone numbers dialed and the dates and times of email exchanges. The authorizations did not cover the content of communications. The total number of requests for 2008 amount to more than 1,400 a day and nearly 10,000 a week. Overall, around 1,2 million official government requests for access to communications data have been made in Britain from 2006 to 2008 –the equivalent of one request for every 21 adults living in Britain.