‘Secret surveillance of Twitter, Facebook necessary’

By Daniel Clark Apr 25th, 2012 ( 2 Comments )

London: A suggestion has been put forward by Sir David Ormand, the former head of the UK’s intelligence gathering centre GCHQ, urging UK government that social media sites should be covered strictly.

Terrorist and criminals elements use social websites like Facebook and Twitter to achieve their heinous objectives, according to Ormand.

He said that the responsible authorities should keep the suspects under constant surveillance.

The former intelligence officer was of the view that individual accounts should be hacked if necessary, but added this should only be done under special circumstances.

“Social media is how people are talking to each other,” he said. There have been reports that Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden are using social media to communicate, and Mr Omand said that in such circumstances the authorities need to be able to gain access to private accounts.

According to the Demos report, around 40% of people in the UK feel the police should be able to access information on social networking sites when investigating crime.

The Demos report suggests the Regulatory and Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) could be used to gain legal access to Facebook and Twitter accounts.

However, critics fear that these new proposals pose a real threat to personal liberties.

Nick Pickles, director of privacy and civil liberties group Big Brother Watch, said of the Demos report: “Only a tiny fraction of surveillance authorizations and data requests ever go before a judge, and there is a real risk that the Home Office’s latest communications plans will further undermine a system that is already failing to protect citizens privacy.

“It is perfectly legitimate for the authorities to be able to use new technology to monitor a suspect, but the Home Office’s plans involve indiscriminate surveillance of every person using the internet and no amount of legal tinkering will make that any more acceptable.”