British Police Forces Invest in Phone Hacking

British police forces to spend up to £20million on phone hacking technology, NS Tech reveals.

19:50 10 March 2019

A recent report released by the NS Tech claims that British police forces are preparing to spend up to £20million on a smartphone hacking technology that can bypass smartphone encryption software. It claims that the Northamptonshire Police is to work together with the National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) to establish a framework that will enable police forces to buy tech from a central unit.

 

“It is hoped that through this dynamic purchasing system police forces can work in partnership with digital suppliers to ensure the market can develop alongside the ever growing policing requirements,” the notice states.

 

Extraction software on smartphones has been in used in recent years helping police forces harvest data about people’s behaviour. But there are concerns that the law is unable to keep pace with the technology and that there is a lack of oversight of the way in which it is deployed.

 

A spokesperson for the Information Commissioner’s Office said: “[This] is a priority area for the Information Commissioner, and the ICO has an ongoing investigation into use of data extraction technology on the mobile phones of suspects, victims and witnesses. Law enforcement agencies using technologies such as data extraction need to comply with the requirements of the Data Protection Act 2018.”