Fears government agencies can listen in to private mobile phone calls at the ‘flick of a switch’ after Vodafone reveals authorities use secret wires across its entire network which stretches to 29 countries

Friday, June 6, 2014
By Paul Martin

Vodafone said direct-access wires or pipes allowed authorities to listen in
Conversations can be listened to or recorded and metadata can be tracked
Mobile phone giant released report to highlight widespread use of tapping
Direct-access pipes said to be illegal in UK because agencies need warrant
Civil rights groups described revelation as ‘unprecedented and terrifying’

By Emma Glanfield
DailyMailUK
6 June 2014

Mobile phone giant Vodafone has revealed how government agencies around the world use secret wires to listen in to private phone calls across its entire network.

The company revealed how direct-access wires or pipes were connected directly to its network, allowing authorities in some of the 29 countries it covers to monitor phone conversations and track users.

The wires allow conversations to be listened to or recorded, or metadata – including the location of a device, the times and dates of communications and with whom communication was made – to be captured.

The company outlined the details in a report on the widespread use of secret surveillance by government agencies.

In six of the countries in which Vodafone operates the wires are a legal requirement, with laws obliging telecommunications companies to install direct-access pipes or allowing governments to do so.

Vodafone is publishing its report to reveal the extent that phone tapping is used by governments to snoop on their citizens, The Guardian said.

The firm has called for direct-access pipes to be disconnected and for agencies to have to gain warrants to carry out any surveillance, to discourage them from gaining direct access to a communications network with a legal mandate.

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