Your email to the Merseyside Police Freedom of Information (FOI) in box is
acknowledged.

If it contains an initial (new) request under FOI it will be dealt with in
accordance with section 10 of the Act which means that you are entitled to
receive a response no later than 20 working days after the first working
day* on which your request is received.

Other arrangements may apply if a fees notice is issued or if the time
period is extended in order that public interest considerations of our
response may take place. Section 10 also allows public authorities to
apply variations to the normal 20 working day timescale in some limited
circumstances.

Due to the volume of e-mail correspondence and FOI applications received,
the Force regrets that individual acknowledgement e-mails will not be sent
even if specifically requested.

If the correspondence cannot be dealt with as FOI, it will be forwarded
internally and you will be advised of the location. Any related
communication must be direct to the identified location and not the FOI
e-mail address.

*The ‘working day’ is defined as any day other than a Saturday, a Sunday,
Christmas Day, Good Friday or a day which is a bank holiday under the
Banking and Financial Dealings Act 1971 in any part of the United Kingdom.
The first reckonable day is the working day after the working day of
receipt.

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This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended
solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed.
If you have received this email in error please notify the sender as soon
as possible. This footnote confirms that all reasonable steps have been
taken to ensure that this email message has been swept for the presence of
computer viruses. The views expressed in this communication may not
necessarily be the views of Merseyside Police. All communications,
including telephone calls and electronic messages to and from Merseyside
Police may be subject to monitoring and recording.
============================================================

Dear applicant

Response Letter - FOI Application DM2020/0153 (please quote in all
correspondence)

I write in connection with your request for information, which was
received by Merseyside Police on 30/01/2020, concerning:

(summary of request) information relating to Merseyside Police use of data
extraction from cloud-based apps and accounts

Your request for information has been considered and I am not obliged to
supply the information that you have requested.

Section 17, Freedom of Information Act, 2000, requires Merseyside Police,
when refusing to provide such information (because the information is
exempt) to provide you the applicant with a notice which:
(a) states that fact,
(b) specifies the exemption(s) in question and
(c) states (if that would not otherwise be apparent) why the exemption
applies.

Reason for Decision:

Request refused by Virtue of Section 14(1) of the Freedom of Information
Act.  Section 14 states that a public authority need not comply with a
request for information if that request is vexatious.

The exact same request has been received from more than one source and it
is apparent that it forms part of a campaign orchestrated by Privacy
International, as the details can be found on that organisation’s website:

[1]https://privacyinternational.org/action/...

Whilst acknowledging that the Freedom of Information Act is designed to
open up public authorities to greater scrutiny and accountability, and
that when viewed in isolation this application appears to be a genuine
attempt to seek information, where applicants work ‘in concert’ with one
another the Force has to consider the aggregated impact of dealing with
such requests, particularly when it may be at the expense of responding in
a timely manner to other individuals who are using the FOI Act
responsibly.

The Information Commissioner’s Office has previously supported this view,
with its guidance stating:

“If a public authority has reason to believe that several different
requesters are acting in concert as part of a campaign to disrupt the
organisation by virtue of the sheer weight of FOIA requests being
submitted, then it may take this into account when determining whether any
of those requests are vexatious”

This communication therefore serves as a Refusal Notice under the FOI Act.

Had Section 14 FOI Act not been a consideration in this case, it is likely
that the requested information would have been refused under Section 31
FOI Act, as it would clearly not be in the interests of law enforcement to
reveal which storage systems the Force is able to extract data from and
which it cannot, as to do so would effectively tell the criminal
fraternity where data can be stored without risk of detection.

Complaint Rights

Your attention is drawn to the information following this response, which
details your rights of review and of complaint.

Should you have any further enquiries concerning this matter, please write
to or e-mail me at the below address, quoting the reference number above.

Yours sincerely

Mr D May
Disclosure Analyst
FOI Team
Data Access Unit
Merseyside Police
PO BOX 59
LIVERPOOL L69 1JD
E-mail: [2][Merseyside Police request email]

Making a complaint or appeal about your Freedom of Information response

We accept that sometimes you may not agree with the decision we’ve made
about your Freedom of Information request. If this is the case there is an
internal complaints procedure that should be followed.

You should make your complaint in writing to:

FOI Team

Data Access Unit
Merseyside Police

PO BOX 59

LIVERPOOL

L69 1JD

It should detail:

What the original request was

The nature of the complaint

Why you feel you should have received more information

Your complaint will be fully investigated and will be dealt with by a
staff member who was not involved in the original decision. We will write
to you to advise the outcome of your complaint.

If you are dissatisfied with the results of your complaint you have the
right to appeal to the Information Commissioner. He can be contacted at:

The Office of the Information Commissioner
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire SK9 5AF

More information is available from the Information Commissioner's website

[3]http://www.ico.org.uk

============================================================
This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended
solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed.
If you have received this email in error please notify the sender as soon
as possible. This footnote confirms that all reasonable steps have been
taken to ensure that this email message has been swept for the presence of
computer viruses. The views expressed in this communication may not
necessarily be the views of Merseyside Police. All communications,
including telephone calls and electronic messages to and from Merseyside
Police may be subject to monitoring and recording.
============================================================

References

Visible links
1. https://privacyinternational.org/action/...
2. mailto:[Merseyside Police request email]
3. http://www.ico.org.uk/