Home Office U-turn on interception law consultation

The Home Office has agreed to involve civil liberties groups in its consultation on UK interception laws

The Home Office has agreed to meet civil liberties groups as part of its consultation into a review of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) 2000.

This follows several weeks of complaints from digital rights and civil liberties campaigning organisation the Open Rights Group (ORG), which claimed it was being excluded from the process.

The Home Office originally responded to these complaints in a letter saying: "We are focusing on those parties directly affected by the changes... or are directly responsible, where lawful interception is taking place, for ensuring that consent has been obtained for the interception."

However, following pressure, the Home Office has now said it will meet with ORG and other groups this week, and has extended the consultation deadline until 17 December.

Claiming the agreement as a victory, the ORG stated on its web site: "It is vital that civil society is not 'locked out' of discussions like this, allowing industrial voices to determine the agenda alone. We fought for several years alongside groups like No2DPI to get these laws changed, during the Phorm case, this included sending many complaints to the EU Commission. It would be entirely wrong that we should now be shut out of the process."

This consultation was prompted by a European Commission investigation into how Phorm, an ad-tracking technology, was rolled out in the UK.

During the investigation, the EC found insufficient protection for UK citizens whose web browsing or email had been monitored unintentionally.

This means that the UK does not comply with the European e-Privacy directive, forcing the Home Office to reconsider RIPA.

Earlier this year, Google admitted intercepting private data without permission while gathering data for its Street View service. Changes to RIPA could mean tougher sanctions for any similar actions in future.