Police use loophole to view stored messages

Posted By: James

Monday 20th October 2014

UK police forces have been utilizing a legal loophole to access answerphone messages, emails and texts, it has been warned. An investigation by the Times reveals that police can get around restrictions for viewing messages which are sent and in storage by acquiring a production order from a judge. "A production order will only be agreed by a judge if the request meets strict criteria,” responded the Home Office. The paper found that the West Midlands police used protection orders to access stored communications 329 times over the past three-years, while Northumbria did 72 times, Merseyside 25 and Thames Valley 16. EE claims it has been receiving roughly 150 production orders a month from police.

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