Theresa May's Internet History

The request was refused by Home Office.

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 projected cost to the taxpayer (calculated or estimated - whichever is available) of implementing the Government's proposed new legislation regarding extending the use of communications data by the police and security services.

2) The date, time, and recipient of every email sent by the Home Secretary over the last 12 months.

3) The date, time, and sender of every email received by the Home Secretary over the last 12 months.

4) The date, time, and recipient of every internet telephony call (e.g. "Skype" call) made by the Home Secretary over the last 12 months.

5) The date, time, and sender of every internet telephony call (e.g. "Skype" call) received by the Home Secretary over the last 12 months.

6) The date, time, and recipient of every internet "chat" (e.g. "Facebook" or "Windows Live Messenger") initiated by the Home Secretary over the last 12 months.

7) The date, time, and sender of every internet "chat" (e.g. "Facebook" or "Windows Live Messenger") received by the Home Secretary over the last 12 months.

8) The date, time, and internet address (URL) of every website visited by the Home Secretary over the last 12 months.

Yours faithfully,

Matthew Dodd

William left an annotation ()

This may be treated as "vexatious" but it makes some completely fair points. Officials, and even the Home Secretary herself, may feel offended by the intrusive nature. But we feel the same about mass CCDP. They may argue it's too expensive. But ditto. They'll probably obfuscate and I very much doubt they'll respond within the prescribed time. This will reinforce our impression they're easy-going about laws which erode our rights and cynical about laws which don't suit them.

Tim Turner left an annotation ()

Requests like this convince me that What Do They Know should have a 'like' button.

chris doyle left an annotation ()

Does the Home Secretary even know what Skype or Facebook or chat are? This FOI might be easy to answer, as most politicians get their messages and memos on dead trees, not digitally.

Anastasia left an annotation ()

"The date, time, and sender of every "

The name of the sender/recipient you WON'T get, I can tell you the right now.

Pooch left an annotation ()

Matt - I wish you the best of luck in this FOI request.

However, I can almost guarantee you, that Ms May and her Tory Cronies will NOT give you any of the information you've asked for, and they will almost certainly tell you that such a request "Is not in the public interest", or some other similarly bullshit excuse.

As always, it's one rule for government, and one rule for those ruled by said government! :( Orwell would have had a coronary at this latest government "idea"!

Dear Home Office,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of the Home Office's handling of my FOI request 'Theresa May's Internet History'.

By law, the Home Office should normally have responded promptly and by 3 May 2012.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address:
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/th...

Yours faithfully,

Matt Dodd

FOI Requests, Home Office

Dear Mr Dodd,

Apologise in the delay in responding to your email. We are confident that we have carried out the necessary checks and have found no records of your original request on any of our systems. As a result of this we have decided to log your request as received on the 4th May 2012.

Regards
Reshma Patel

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Ganesh Sittampalam left an annotation ()

Our email logs show that the original request message on 3rd April was accepted by the Home Office's advertised email servers that day.

Ganesh - WhatDoTheyKnow.com volunteer

Dear Home Office,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to again request an internal review of the Home Office's handling of my FOI request 'Theresa May's Internet History'.

My original request was submitted on the 3rd of April 2012, via WhatDoTheyKnow.com.

By law, the Home Office should normally have responded promptly and by the 3rd of May 2012 (within 20 working days of the original request).

When the Home Office failed to reply by the deadline, I contacted it on the 4th of May 2012, again via WhatDoTheyKnow.com, to request an internal review.

I received a reply from the Home Office on the 9th of May 2012, which said "we are confident that we have carried out the necessary checks and have found no records of your original request on any of our systems". As such, the Home Office decided to mark my original request as having been received on the 4th of May 2012, instead of the 3rd of April 2012.

Because of this unsatisfactory reply, I contacted WhatDoTheyKnow.com, and asked them to double-check at their end whether my original request was sent successfully and correctly.

According to the WhatDoTheyKnow.com volunteer who replied to my support request, "our email logs show that the original request message on 3rd April was accepted by the Home Office's advertised email servers that day". The WhatDoTheyKnow.com volunteer has added this statement to my request on WhatDoTheyKnow.com as an annotation, and has also told me that WhatDoTheyKnow.com would be happy to provide their logs as needed to back this up.

As such, I believe that the original date of my request, the 3rd of April 2012, should still stand as the date of submission, and therefore it is my belief that the Home Office has failed to respond to my request promptly and within 20 working days, despite the law requiring it to do so.

Perhaps the Home Office should check its GSi email logs again?

The ICO recommend that internal reviews should be carried out within 20 working days.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address:
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/th...

Yours faithfully,

Matt Dodd

FOI Requests, Home Office

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Dodd,

 

Please see attached letter regarding your request for an Internal Review.

 

Regards

 

N Dibsdale

Information Access Team: Case Officer

Information Management Services

Home Office

 

 

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Communications via the GSi may be automatically logged, monitored and/or
recorded for legal purposes.

FOI Requests, Home Office

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Dodd,

 

Please find attached our response to your Freedom of Information request.

 

Regards

 

N Dibsdale

Information Access Team: Case Officer

Information Management Services

Home Office

 

 

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Communications via the GSi may be automatically logged, monitored and/or
recorded for legal purposes.

Liliana Dmitrovic left an annotation ()

Matt, might be worth putting in a request for 'communications during a calendar month' or by type of communication during a period? Good luck either way