Details of any investigations regarding Axial trials

Information Commissioner's Office did not have the information requested.

Dear Information Commissioner’s Office,

I would like to bring your attention to this article detailing the intention by mobile telecoms operators to trial systems provided by Axial:

http://www.securitynewsdesk.com/uk-mobil...

This trial seems to go far beyond what the law currently demands, and as such raises questions over what type of consent is required for the interception and processing of personal data (or for that matter the very nature of the interception or the data being processed).

- Is the ICO aware of the planned trial?
- If you are aware of the trial then:
--- has any investigation into the details of the trial been undertaken?
--- what if any action if any will be taken?
--- if no action will be taken then what justification was made for it?
--- who are the mobile operators taking part in the trial?
- If you were not aware of the trial then:
--- will you be undertaking an investigation?
--- is one already underway?
--- if there is to be no investigation then what justification was made for the lack of action?

I might add that the majority of the public own mobile phones, so the public interest argument should be very clear with regards to knowing whether their personal and private communications are subject to potentially illegal behaviour. This would require knowing which providers are willing to trial this system.

I would also like you to provide the following:
- A copy of any correspondence between the ICO and any provider taking part in the trial that relates to this trial
- A copy of any correspondence between the ICO and Axial that relates to this trial
- Any internal ICO correspondence concerning this trial

I might end by saying I'm aware there is no obligation for the companies to get authorisation from the ICO for trials, but the behaviour here nevertheless warrants further investigation by the ICO in my opinion given the questionable nature of this particular trial and the systems being used.

Yours faithfully,

P Seurre

AccessICOinformation, Information Commissioner's Office

Thank you for contacting the Information Commissioner’s Office. We confirm
that we have received your correspondence.

 

If you have made a request for information held by the ICO we will contact
you as soon as possible if we need any further information to enable us to
answer your request. If we don't need any further information we will
respond to you within our published, and statutory, service levels. For
more information please visit [1]http://ico.org.uk/about_us/how_we_comply

 

If you have raised a new information rights concern - we aim to send you
an initial response and case reference number within 30 days.

 

If you are concerned about the way an organisation is handling your
personal information, we will not usually look into it unless you have
raised it with the organisation first. For more information please see our
webpage ‘raising a concern with an organisation’ (go to our homepage and
follow the link ‘for the public’). You can also call the number below.

 

If you have requested advice - we aim to respond within 14 days.

 

If your correspondence relates to an existing case - we will add it to
your case and consider it on allocation to a case officer.

 

Copied correspondence - we do not respond to correspondence that has been
copied to us.

 

For more information about our services, please see our webpage ‘Service
standards and what to expect' (go to our homepage and follow the links for
‘Report a concern’ and ‘Service standards and what to expect'). You can
also call the number below.

 

If there is anything you would like to discuss with us, please call our
helpline on 0303 123 1113.

 

Yours sincerely

 

The Information Commissioner’s Office

 

Our newsletter

Details of how to sign up for our monthly e-newsletter can be found at
[2]http://www.ico.org.uk/tools_and_resource...

 

Twitter

Find us on Twitter at [3]http://www.twitter.com/ICOnews

 

The ICO's mission is to uphold information rights in the public interest.
To find out more about our work please visit our website, or subscribe to
our e-newsletter at ico.org.uk/newsletter.

If you are not the intended recipient of this email (and any attachment),
please inform the sender by return email and destroy all copies without
passing to any third parties.

If you'd like us to communicate with you in a particular way please do let
us know, or for more information about things to consider when
communicating with us by email, visit ico.org.uk/email

References

Visible links
1. http://ico.org.uk/about_us/how_we_comply
2. http://www.ico.org.uk/tools_and_resource...
3. http://www.twitter.com/ICOnews

Information Commissioner's Office

8th September 2016

 

Case Reference Number IRQ0642660

 

Dear Mr Seurre

Thank you for your correspondence of 18 August 2016. We handled your
request in line with your rights under section 1 of the Freedom of
Information Act (FOIA) and our response is below.
 
 
Your request:
 
“I would like to bring your attention to this article detailing the
intention by mobile telecoms operators to trial systems provided by Axial:
 
http://www.securitynewsdesk.com/uk-mobil...
 
This trial seems to go far beyond what the law currently demands, and as
such raises questions over what type of consent is required for the
interception and processing of personal data (or for that matter the very
nature of the interception or the data being processed).
 
- Is the ICO aware of the planned trial?
- If you are aware of the trial then:
--- has any investigation into the details of the trial been undertaken?
--- what if any action if any will be taken?
--- if no action will be taken then what justification was made for it?
--- who are the mobile operators taking part in the trial?
- If you were not aware of the trial then:
--- will you be undertaking an investigation?
--- is one already underway?
--- if there is to be no investigation then what justification was made
for the lack of action?
 
I might add that the majority of the public own mobile phones, so the
public interest argument should be very clear with regards to knowing
whether their personal and private communications are subject to
potentially illegal behaviour. This would require knowing which providers
are willing to trial this system.
 
I would also like you to provide the following:
- A copy of any correspondence between the ICO and any provider taking
part in the trial that relates to this trial
- A copy of any correspondence between the ICO and Axial that relates to
this trial
- Any internal ICO correspondence concerning this trial
 
I might end by saying I'm aware there is no obligation for the companies
to get authorisation from the ICO for trials, but the behaviour here
nevertheless warrants further investigation by the ICO in my opinion given
the questionable nature of this particular trial and the systems being
used.”
 
Our response
 
Please see below our responses to your questions which I will address in
turn.
 
In relation to mobile telecoms operators trialling systems provided by
Axial you asked:
 
 

* Is the ICO aware of the planned trial?

 
In response to your question, the issue was brought to the attention of
the ICO on 15 August 2016 through a tweet. In order to answer the tweet,
key staff members were consulted and we established that we had no
information on of mobile service providers trialling Axial Systems.
 

* If you are aware of the trial then:

 
- has any investigation into the details of the trial been undertaken?
- what if any action if any will be taken?
- if no action will be taken then what justification was made for it?
- who are the mobile operators taking part in the trial?
 
We do not hold information in relation to the above questions. For
clarity, we have not had an investigation into the details of the trial
and therefore have not taken action. There is also no recorded information
on whether action will be taken. We do not hold information on the names
of mobile operators taking part in this trial.
 
 

* - If you were not aware of the trial then:

- will you be undertaking an investigation?
- is one already underway?
-if there is to be no investigation then what justification was made for
the lack of action?
 
We do not hold information in relation to this part of your request.
However, there are no plans to open an investigation as a result of the
news article due to the lack of evidence contained within. Should more
information come to light in the future, either obtained from a data
controller or a member of the public, then this decision can be revisited.
 
In the event that more information does become available to members of the
public the most appropriate route is to feed directly into our complaints
system [1]https://ico.org.uk/concerns/, rather than submitting a FOIA
request.
 
You also asked;
- A copy of any correspondence between the ICO and any provider taking
part in the trial that relates to this trial
 
We do not hold information in relation to this part of your request. We
have not had correspondence with any provider in relation to this trial.
 
- A copy of any correspondence between the ICO and Axial that relates to
this trial
 
We do not hold information in relation to this part of your request. We
have not had correspondence with Axial that relates to this trial.
 
- Any internal ICO correspondence concerning this trial
 
We do not hold internal correspondence about mobile service providers
trialling Axial Systems.
 
 
We hope our response is helpful.
 
Yours sincerely
 
Iman Elmehdawy
Information Access Service Manager
 
 
Next steps
 
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 Information Access team
at the address below or e-mail [2][ICO request email].

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 visit
the ‘Concerns’ section of our website to make a Freedom of Information Act
or Environmental Information Regulations complaint online.
 
A copy of our review procedure is available [3]here
 
 
 
 
 

The ICO's mission is to uphold information rights in the public interest.
To find out more about our work please visit our website, or subscribe to
our e-newsletter at ico.org.uk/newsletter.

If you are not the intended recipient of this email (and any attachment),
please inform the sender by return email and destroy all copies without
passing to any third parties.

If you'd like us to communicate with you in a particular way please do let
us know, or for more information about things to consider when
communicating with us by email, visit ico.org.uk/email

References

Visible links
1. https://ico.org.uk/concerns/
2. mailto:[ICO request email]
3. https://ico.org.uk/media/about-the-ico/p...