IPCO Annual Report 2018
Annex C: Serious Errors
The Investigatory Powers Commissioner decided that this error amounted to a serious error (within
the meaning of section 231 of the Investigatory Powers Act 2016). Accordingly, the Investigatory
Powers Commissioner’s Office (IPCO) notified the affected person of the fact of the serious error
and of that person’s right to apply to the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT).
Error Investigation 1
Police Force
Human or Technical:
Human (Special Point of Contact, SPoC)
Classification:
Transposition of Data
Data Acquired:
Subscriber information relating to an Internet Protocol Address
Resolution
Description:
Officers investigating the upload of indecent images of children
to the internet had sought to identify the customer details of 14
separate IP (internet protocol) addresses used to commit the offences.
An authorisation to acquire the information was granted, however
whilst acquiring the data a wrong month was entered for one of the
14 addresses into the system portal used to collect the relevant details
from Internet Service Provider. Despite an evident anomaly with the
returned data, police officers still visited the address supplied to
establish if there was any connection to the suspect.
Consequence:
Innocent person spoken to and eliminated from inquiries.
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