Phone Tapping

The News of the World phone tapping row rumbles on like a thunderstorm caught in a never ending loop.

On 6 September, the Home Secretary, Theresa May, responded to a question on phone tapping in which she emphasised that a committee of the House spent considerable time in investigating the phone tapping question in the last Parliament and that it was for the Metropolitan Police to investigate if new evidence came to light.

The next day Metropolitan Police assistant commissioner, John Yates, was grilled by a select committee into the police’s role in investigating the allegations. Now two separate House of Commons committees are to launch new phone tapping enquiries.


With the negative publicity surrounding phone tapping, it is surprising to find that a quick internet search will bring up companies offering to sell phone tapping equipment, especially in view of the fact that phone tapping is an illegal practice.


Whilst it was possible for anyone with a scanner to tap into the old analogue telephone systems, it is much harder to intercept modern scrambled digital signals. Although interception of conversations is possible, it requires some very sophisticated equipment and is therefore expensive. The easiest method of tapping is to hack into voicemail messages which are designed to be accessible by dialling a secondary number and using a PIN code.


To protect yourself from phone hacking it is important to change your PIN code on a regular basis and, as with bank cards, make sure that the number is random. If you need to talk to someone about a potentially sensitive subject, just leave your name and ask them to call back, never leave a voicemail message which contains confidential information.

Phone tapping is completely different from phone conversation recording which may be used for business purposes. Businesses can record telephone calls in a specific set of circumstances which according to the Ofcom website include:

• to provide evidence of a business transaction
• to ensure that a business complies with regulatory procedures
  
• to see that quality standards or targets are being met in the interests of national security
• to prevent or detect crime to investigate the unauthorised use of a telecom system
• to secure the effective operation of the telecom system
  

Businesses who record telephone calls have to advise their employees but do not have to advise clients as long as the monitoring is for one of the allowed reasons. If the call recording is for another purpose such as market research then clients have to be advised. In practice, most businesses will advise clients as a matter of courtesy that calls may be recorded.