Privy Council Review of intercept as evidence: report - Official ...

Voice over IP, and may be
completely unaware they have
done so, but it will happen to
them none the less.
Secondly most communications
devices will have high-speed
internet access provided as
standard. This will enable
people to make use of any of
the thousands of services
available on the internet,
provided by suppliers anywhere
in the world or even by users
cooperating amongst
themselves. The processing
that makes that possible will be
done by a mixture of the
suppliers’ servers (which may
well be located offshore) and
the customer’s own equipment.
It is becoming easy for a user to
move between a number of
services, provided by different
suppliers, in the course of a
single call – see the example in
the box.
112. Many of these standard
services offer their users anonymity
and security - although users often
may not be aware of this. Anonymity
may result from embedded security
features, or simply from the weak
registration typical of the many free
services available – users may not
even need to identify themselves before using them, and even if they do, it is
usually easy to give a false identity.
WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR INTERCEPTION?
During its investigations the review team
was given the following real-life example of
the type of multi-thread communication that
occurs naturally with modern
communications systems.
Three friends Ian, Michael, and Stuart are
planning a trip to the cricket. Stuart texts Ian
from work to ensure he will be at his
computer a little later to organise the trip.
He then goes home and turns on his
computer. He sends an Instant Message to
see if Ian is online, which he is. Both then
log onto their favourite Voice over IP (VoIP)
package and begin discussing the trip.
They quickly realise it would be easier if
they could both see the fixture list, so Stuart
e-mails to Ian a link to the cricket club’s
web-site. This fails, so instead he posts the
link to a web forum they both use.
They carry on their discussion and agree
which match they wish to see. Michael is
also online but does not have the same
VoIP package so can’t join in the
conversation. However he and Ian are
playing the same on-line computer game,
and so use the in-game text-based chat
function to discuss the details, Ian acting as
a relay between Michael and Stuart. Finally
all agree that Ian will buy the tickets. The
others use an online bank (PayPal) to send
the money to him. This in turn generates
confirmation e-mails.
So over the course of 30 minutes the three
friends have used half a dozen different
communications methods, not with any
intention to conceal their activities but
because it’s a convenient and natural way to
use the technology.
113. Some witnesses, while of course accepting that these changes are
happening, argue that they are not relevant to the question of using intercept
as evidence. This, they suggest, is a matter of principle, not to be driven by
the technology of the day. We do not believe it is as simple as that; an
intercept as evidence regime must be workable and practically useful within
the technological framework which actually exists, and increasingly that will be
IP.
114. Circuit-switched telephony lends itself to a simple model of
interception. Once the system has recognised that a call to or from a target
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