IPCO Annual Report 2017
Error Investigation 10
Responsible Party
Public Authority
Human or Technical
Human
Cause
Transposition
Data Acquired
Subscriber information relating to an IP address
Description
A public authority was investigating the grooming of a young female
via social media.
The suspect’s own profile led officers to believe he was using other
peoples broadband to log on and interact with the female. When
seeking to resolve the accounts using two pertinent IP addresses the
applicant inadvertently swopped the times and dates of each over.
When the results were returned, the customers at two different postal
addresses were visited. With neither having any connection to the
suspect witness statements were taken to confirm this.
Consequence
Police contact made with two families unconnected with their
investigation with statements taken.
Error Investigation 11
Responsible Party
Public Authority
Human or Technical
Human
Cause
Transposition
Data Acquired
Subscriber information relating to an IP address linked to a social media
username...
Description
Sexualised chat upon social media involving a young child led to
a mother to report the facts to police. The contact identified the
suspect’s username. When a RIPA application was made around this
username the applicant entered xxx.xxxxx11 instead of xxx.xxxxx.11
Further acquisitions based on the wrong username led officers to the
home of an innocent male.
To exacerbate matters these events started in 2013 passed to another
public authority in 2016 when the arrest took place.
This error wasn’t reported to IPCO until September 2017.
Consequence
Innocent person arrested and interviewed.
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