Investigatory Powers Commissioner ’s Annual Report 2019
Annex C: Serious Errors
The Investigatory Powers Commissioner (IPC) decided that the following errors amounted to a
serious error within the meaning of section 231 of the Investigatory Powers Act 2016 (IPA). Further
details on serious errors are given in chapter 18 and on our website [www.ipco.org.uk]. As noted
in chapter 18 our investigations have included potential errors made by Telecommunications
Operators (TOs).
Error Investigation 1
Public Authority
Human or Technical:
Human, single point of contact (SPoC)
Classification:
Transposition
Data Acquired:
Customer information relating to an Internet Protocol Address
Resolution (IPAR)
Description:
A public authority had arrested a suspect for online grooming offences.
The online activity had been conducted using different internet
protocol (IP) addresses and so the officers worked to confirm that the
assigned broadband customer for these IP addresses was the suspect.
The public authority made a series of requests to establish the
customer assigned use of the IP addresses. Two errors were made
during acquisition;
i. the last three digits from another IP address relating to the
same investigation was used when the request was sent to the
provider; and
ii. to ensure the correct customer was identified, the IP’s session
time was requested by the authority. This brought back the email
addresses for two customers (the suspect and a previous customer
who had been allocated the IP address in the past). The public
authority made a request against the wrong email address, which
produced the name and address of the previous customer.
Consequence:
Two homes unconnected to this investigation were visited and the
occupants spoken to.
There was no determination by the IPC, as the effect on those visited
was assessed not to have caused significant prejudice or harm.
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