Web Monitoringa

Dear Mr Grimshaw,

Thank you for your email message of 30th September 2009 concerning the
monitoring of Wikileaks website by the MOD.

There is no established policy within MOD for the monitoring of
websites. However, over the last five years sites such as WikiLeaks have
periodically been viewed for disclosures of classified documents and
online auction sites in respect of the sale of classified equipment.

Such searches as may be undertaken are not automated."

Many thanks

MOD

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Dear Mr Grimshaw

1. Thank you for your email message of 30 Sept concerning the
monitoring of websites by the MOD.

2. There is no established policy within MOD for the monitoring of
websites. However, over the last five years sites such as WikiLeaks have
periodically been viewed for disclosures of classified documents and
online auction sites in respect of the sale of classified equipment.
Such searches as may be undertaken are not automated and no records are
maintained.

3. The information supplied to you continues to be protected by the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. You are free to use it for your
own purposes, including any non-commercial research you are doing and
for the purposes of news reporting. Any other reuse, for example
commercial publication, would require the permission of the copyright
holder. Most documents supplied by the Ministry of Defence will have
been produced by government officials and will be Crown Copyright. You
can find details on the arrangements for re-using Crown Copyright from
the Office of Public Sector Information at:
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/click-use/index.htm.

4. Information you receive which is not subject to Crown Copyright
continues to be protected by the copyright of the person, or
organisation, from which the information originated. You must ensure
that you gain their permission before reproducing any third party (non
Crown Copyright) information.

5. In keeping with the spirit and effect of the Freedom of
Information Act, all information is assumed to be releasable to the
public unless exempt. The MOD therefore will be simultaneously posting
the information you requested, together with any related information
that will provide a key to its wider context, in our online FOI
Disclosure Log at http://www.foi.mod.uk.

6. If you are not satisfied with this response or you wish to
complain about any aspect of the handling of your request, then you
should contact me in the first instance. If informal resolution is not
possible and you are still dissatisfied then you may apply for an
independent internal review by contacting the Head of Corporate
Information, 6th Floor, MOD Main Building, Whitehall, SW1A 2HB (e-mail
[email address]). Please note that any request for an internal review
must be made within 40 working days of the date on which the attempt to
reach informal resolution has come to an end.

7. If you remain dissatisfied following an internal review, you may
take your complaint to the Information Commissioner under the provisions
of Section 50 of the Freedom of Information Act. Please note that the
Information Commissioner will not investigate your case until the MOD
internal review process has been completed. Further details of the role
and powers of the Information Commissioner can be found on the
Commissioner's website, http://www.ico.gov.uk.

8. This message supersedes any previous version that may have been
sent in response to this particular request.

Defence Security Secretariat

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