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Request sent to Prime Minister's Office by P. John on 26 March 2009.
Rejection by Home Office to P. John on 2 March 2010.
Information not held by Information Commissioner’s Office to P. John on 29 June 2009.
Mike Galvin (BT): Informed ICO Every Step of the Way
A Freedom of Information request to Information Commissioner’s Office by P. John
Information Commissioner’s Office did not have the information requested.
P. John
8 July 2009
Dear Sir or Madam,
In 2006 and 2007 BT conducted covert trials of a communication
surveillance technology supplied by 121Media/Phorm. The secret
trials intercepted and processed the private and confidential
communications traffic of hundreds of thousands of BT Internet
customers and the web sites that served them. The data obtained was
used to obtain marketing intelligence.
BT did not seek consent from either their customers or the web
sites involved.
Mr. Mike Galvin (BT Design Managing Director, 21C Customer
Experience) recently stated that "BT kept the ICO fully informed
every step of the way" about trials of 121Media/Phorm technology.
Please could you therefore disclose for me;
- The date BT first informed the ICO that they proposed to trial
communication surveillance systems supplied by 121Media/Phorm
- Please disclose the associated item of correspondence in each
case wherein BT advised the Information Commissioners Office that
such trials were proposed
- All correspondence between Mr. Mike Galvin of BT, and the
Information Commissioners Office concerning the 121Media/Phorm
trials over the period 2006-present day
- The dates, minutes, agenda of any meeting between the Information
Commissioners Office and Mr. Mike Galvin of BT in the period
2006-present day.
Yours faithfully,
P. John
Information Commissioner’s Office
9 July 2009
Link: [1]File-List
9th July 2009
Case Reference Number IRQ0257837
Dear Mr John
Request for Information
Thank you for your e-mail of 8 July 2009 in which you have asked us to
provide you with information relating to contact between the ICO and BT
regarding BT’s trials of 121Media/Phorm technology.
Your request has been passed to the Internal Compliance Team, and is being
dealt with in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000 under
the reference number shown above. We will therefore respond to your
request by 5 August 2009, which is 20 working days from the day after we
received your request.
Yours sincerely
Antonia Swann
Assistant Internal Compliance Manager
show quoted sections
http://www.ico.gov.uk or email: [email address]
Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow,
Cheshire, SK9 5AF
Tel: 01625 545 700 Fax: 01625 524 510
References
Visible links
1. file:///tmp/rad184E1_files/filelist.xml
Information Commissioner’s Office
14 July 2009
Link: [1]File-List
14th July 2009
Case Reference Number IRQ0257837
Dear Mr John
Further to our acknowledgement dated 9 July 2009, we are now in a position
to provide you with a response to your request for information.
On 8 July 09 you requested the following information:
“Please could you therefore disclose for me;
- The date BT first informed the ICO that they proposed to trial
communication surveillance systems supplied by 121Media/Phorm
- Please disclose the associated item of correspondence in each
case wherein BT advised the Information Commissioners Office that
such trials were proposed
- All correspondence between Mr. Mike Galvin of BT, and the
Information Commissioners Office concerning the 121Media/Phorm
trials over the period 2006-present day
- The dates, minutes, agenda of any meeting between the Information
Commissioners Office and Mr. Mike Galvin of BT in the period
2006-present day.”
In response to your request:
The date BT first informed the ICO that they proposed to trial
communication surveillance systems supplied by 121Media/Phorm:
The ICO first became aware of the trials from news reports towards the end
of March 2008.
Please disclose the associated item of correspondence in each
case wherein BT advised the Information Commissioners Office that
such trials were proposed:
We do not hold information in relation to BT advising the Commissioner
that such trials were proposed. Please note that, there is no obligation
on organisations to contact us prior to such trials and they are entitled
to rely on their own legal advice.
- All correspondence between Mr. Mike Galvin of BT, and the
Information Commissioners Office concerning the 121Media/Phorm
trials over the period 2006-present day
We do not hold information in relation to this part of your request.
- The dates, minutes, agenda of any meeting between the Information
Commissioners Office and Mr. Mike Galvin of BT in the period
2006-present day.”
We do not hold information in relation to this part of your request.
I hope the above information is of assistance to you.
If you are dissatisfied with the response you have received and wish to
request a review of our decision or make a complaint about how your
request has been handled you should write to the Internal Compliance Team
at the address below or e-mail [2][email address]
Your request for internal review should be submitted to us within 40
working days of receipt by you of this response. Any such request
received after this time will only be considered at the discretion of the
Commissioner.
If having exhausted the review process you are not content that your
request or review has been dealt with correctly, you have a further right
of appeal to this office in our capacity as the statutory complaint
handler under the legislation. To make such an application, please write
to the Case Reception Team, at the address below or visit the
‘Complaints’ section of our website to make a Freedom of Information
Act or Environmental Information Regulations complaint online.
A copy of our review procedure is attached.
Yours sincerely,
Iman Elmehdawy
Assistant Internal Compliance Manager
Information Commissioner’s Office
show quoted sections
http://www.ico.gov.uk or email: [email address]
Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow,
Cheshire, SK9 5AF
Tel: 01625 545 700 Fax: 01625 524 510
References
Visible links
1. file:///tmp/radB785D_files/filelist.xml
2. mailto:[email address]
P. John
14 July 2009
Dear Sir or Madam,
many thanks.
Yours faithfully,
P. John
Things to do with this request
- Add an annotation (to help the requester or others)
Paul Hancocks left an annotation (10 July 2009)
Interestingly, in connection with Phorm, BT's ex Chief PR man Adam Liversage wrote on Twitter this week: "A year of the most intensive, personal-reputation-destroying PR trench warfare all comes to nothing at the end of the day. Phantastic..."
(Phantastic with a "Ph" of course, because it relates directly to his time spent trying to defend BT and their partnership with "Phorm")
So the answer to these questions about what Mike Galvin was witnessed to say about keeping the ICO informed "every step of the way" will be interesting. We do know that prior to answering this FOI request at least, the belief is that they did not. They did not inform the ICO until after the trials of BT Webwise from Phorm (when they intercepted the communication of thousands of people using the internet for everyday communication; they thought privately)
Interesting questions. Thanks for asking them...
Link to this