UK Home Secretary Says Don't Worry About Collection Of Metadata; FOIA Request Made For Her Metadata

from the well,-this-should-be-interesting dept

With the release of the new UK Snooper's Charter, UK Home Secretary Theresa May tried to justify the collection of phone and internet records as nothing more than being like an "itemised phone bill" and therefore nothing to worry about. Keith Vaz replied that there is plenty to be concerned about when the government can look at such records:

I know you said the information is equivalent to an itemised bill but there's a lot of information in an itemised bill.

If I were to look at your itemised telephone bill and you were to look at mine we might be surprised at who we were telephoning.

But, in response to Vaz, May apparently insisted that there was nothing at all in her records that anyone might find surprising -- leading some to question whether this was May agreeing to release her phone and internet records. Apparently Chris Gilmour decided to find out for sure, and has filed a Freedom of Information request in the UK for a bunch of May's records (found via Ryan Gallagher).

Dear Home Office,

Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 I hereby request the following information from and regarding the Rt Hon Theresa May MP (Con), Secretary of State for the Home Department (the "Home Secretary"):

1) The date, time, and recipient of every email sent by the Home Secretary during October 2015.

2) The date, time, and sender of every email received by the Home Secretary during October 2015.

3) The date, time, and recipient of every internet telephony call (e.g. "Skype" call) made by the Home Secretary during October 2015.

4) The date, time, and sender of every internet telephony call (e.g. "Skype" call) received by the Home Secretary during October 2015.

5) The date, time, and domain address of every website visited by the Home Secretary during October 2015.

Yours faithfully,

Chris Gilmour

Should be interesting to see the responses to that request, huh?

Filed Under: chris gilmour, internet records, metadata, phone records, surveillance, theresa may, uk