Report of the Interception of Communications Commissioner - March 2015
5.10 The policy effect has been to take account of the E-Privacy Directive; I can confirm
that it has not changed or amended the extent to which the powers have been used.
Section 4 DRIPA. Extra-territorial reach of RIPA Part I.
5.11 Part I RIPA 2000 has always had implicit extraterritorial effect. Some companies
based outside the United Kingdom (UK), including some of the largest communications
providers in the market, questioned whether the legislation applied to them. These
companies argued that they would only comply with requests where there was a clear
obligation in law, albeit the majority have always assisted in exigent circumstances where
they are satisfied there is an emergency that involves death or serious harm.
5.12 When RIPA Part I was drafted, some 15 years ago, it took account of the changes
in mobile and Internet based telecommunication systems, in particular, the realisation
that not all of the system parts were within UK territory, that devices and services could
operate both within and outside of the UK and that services do not necessarily relate
to a company based within the UK. Part I was intended to apply to telecommunications
companies offering services to UK users, wherever those companies and / or their
telecommunication systems were based.
5.13 When RIPA came into force in 2000 it recognised that devices could be used in
and move between different geographic locations and that a user of a communications
service could be within the UK but the telecommunications system on which the service
relied could be largely outside the UK (for example internet-related electronic mail or
‘webmail’). The following are examples of how RIPA 2000, before amendment by DRIPA
2014, made provision for such circumstances:
•
•
section 21(6)(a) explains traffic data includes any data identifying or purporting
to identify, any person, apparatus or location to or from which, or by means of
which the communications is or may be transmitted;
section 2(1) explains a ‘telecommunication system’ means any system
(including the apparatus comprised in it) which exists (whether wholly or
partly in the United Kingdom or elsewhere) for the purpose of facilitating the
transmission of communications by any means involving the use of electrical
or electro-magnetic energy.
5.14 Section 4 of DRIPA 2014 amends RIPA 2000 to put beyond doubt the extraterritorial reach in relation to both the interception of communications and the acquisition
of communications data by inserting new subsections into sections 11 (implementation
of interception warrants) and 12 (maintenance of interception capability), which are
concerned with interception and, section 22 which is concerned with the acquisition
of communications data. This confirms that overseas companies that are providing
communications services within the UK are subject to UK legislation with respect to
lawful requests for interception and communications data.
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