Sussex Police secretly recorded thousands of phone calls, according to the ICO

According to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) more than 200,000 phone conversations were recorded without permission or knowledge across Surrey Police and Sussex Police.

In June 2020, the ICO became aware that staff members across both police forces had access to an app that recorded all incoming and outgoing phone calls. 1,015 staff members downloaded the app onto their work mobile phones and more than 200,000 recordings of phone conversations, likely with victims, witnesses, and perpetrators of suspected crimes, were automatically saved.

The ICO considered it ‘highly likely’ that the app captured a large variety of personal data during these calls and it considered that the processing of some of this data was unfair and unlawful. Police officers that downloaded the app were unaware that all calls would be recorded, and people were not informed that their conversations with officers were being recorded.

Sussex Police said the software was made available for use by a ‘small number of specialist hostage negotiators’, the application was unintentionally made available for all staff to use, a spokesperson added, and the force immediate action when the error was identified in March 2020 including removing access to the app, securing evidence and self-referring the breach to the relevant regulators, including the Investigatory Powers Commissioner’s Office (IPCO) and the Information Commissioner’s Office. The Crown Prosecution Service was also made aware.

Stephen Bonner, ICO deputy commissioner – regulatory supervision, said: “Sussex Police and Surrey Police failed to use people’s personal data lawfully by recording hundreds of thousands of phone calls without their knowledge. People have the right to expect that when they speak to a police officer, the information they disclose is handled responsibly. We can only estimate the huge amount of personal data collected during these conversations, including highly sensitive information relating to suspected crimes.

“The reprimand reflects the use of the ICO’s wider powers towards the public sector as large fines could lead to reduced budgets for the provision of vital services. This case highlights why the ICO is pursuing a different approach, as fining Surrey Police and Sussex Police risks impacting the victims of crime in the area once again.

“This case should be a lesson learned to any organisation planning to introduce an app, product or service that uses people’s personal data. Organisations must consider people’s data protection rights and implement data protection principles from the very start.”

The app was first made available in 2016 and was originally intended to be used as recording software by a small number of specific officers, but Surrey Police and Sussex Police chose to make the app available for all staff to download. The app has now been withdrawn from use and the recordings, other than those considered to be evidential material, have been destroyed.

The ICO has applied its revised public sector approach to this case – instead of issuing a £1m fine to both Surrey Police and Sussex Police, they have each received a formal reprimand. The ICO’s approach aims to reduce the impact of fines on those accessing public services and to encourage greater data protection compliance from public authorities to prevent harms from occurring in the first place.

Temporary assistant chief constable Fiona Macpherson explained: “Police management of personal data is vital and we take rigorous measures to ensure this.

“This case exposed a lack of governance around use of this digital application, and this is regrettable.

“As soon as the error was reported, we took urgent action to ensure that this did not happen again. We initiated a review of all applications available on the corporate Google Play Store to ensure that there are no other applications that may have had similar functionality. A robust process is now in place to ensure any new requests for mobile apps are subject to appropriate due diligence and scrutiny.

“Steps were also taken to mitigate the situation by establishing how many officers had downloaded the app, the extent of their use of the app and any potential impact on upcoming legal proceedings. Officers and staff were also given clear instructions to delete any conversations they had recorded without listening to them.

“We also referred the matter proactively to the two regulatory bodies, ICO and IPCO, for their consideration and have fully complied with their directions.”