'We must be allowed to spy on Facebook and Twitter', says former Whitehall intelligence chief

Sir David Omand says monitoring of social media must be put on proper legal footing

Existing laws regulating interception of communications by police and intelligence agencies need overhaul

Public need to be confident they are not being abused

Social media should be monitored by police and security services, a former intelligence chief has said, to prevent paedophiles and terrorists from communicating unhindered.



Sir David Omand, former Permanent Secretary and Security and Intelligence Co-ordinator in the Cabinet Office, says criminals are increasingly making use of online social networks such as Twitter and Facebook to communicate.

He added that those responsible for protecting society need to use the technology to keep suspects under surveillance.

Challenge: Sir David Omand says that without the monitoring and collection of social media intelligence the sites could become 'secret spaces' where those carrying out illegal activities could communicate unhindered

He said that without the monitoring and collection of social media intelligence, known as Socmint, websites could become ‘secret spaces’ where those carrying out illegal activities could communicate freely.

However, the former Whitehall Intelligence officer made it clear that an individual’s account should only be ‘hacked’ into under certain circumstances.



The soon to be published Communications Capabilities Development Programme is expected to force internet service providers to store details of when and where emails are sent and by whom.



Mr Omand wants a Green Paper to be published on monitoring social media sites and for private industry to link up with the Government to develop analytical tools to monitor developments.



There have been reports to suggest that Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden are using social media to communicate with one another and Mr Omand said that in such circumstances the authorities need to be able to gain access to private accounts.



Monitoring: Mr Omand said criminals are increasingly making use of online social networks such as Twitter and Facebook to communicate

He added: ‘I don’t know anybody who thinks that it should be ring-fenced and allowed to become a secret space.’



A new report by the think-tank Demos indicates that Twitter and Facebook accounts could be legally accessed by using the Regulatory and Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA).



The act states that warrants are not necessary for ‘directed surveillance’ of a suspect – for example when monitoring a person’s movements – and that the principle could be extended to the internet where investigators were using publicly available information.



However, the former director of GCHQ said it was essential that monitoring was put on a legal footing so that where individuals have put up privacy settings on their social network accounts any monitoring which involves the interception of communications should require a warrant.



Networking: Mr Omand wants a Green Paper to be published on monitoring social media sites and for private industry to link up with the public sector to develop analytical surveillance tools

The report states: ‘Democratic legitimacy demands that where new methods of intelligence gathering and use are to be introduced, they should be on a firm legal basis and rest on parliamentary and public understanding of what is involved, even if the operational details of the sources and methods used must sometimes remain secret.

‘People now share vastly more personal information about themselves, their friends and their networks in new a varied ways: what is ‘public’ and what is ‘private’ is not always obvious and differs greatly across social media platforms and even within social media platforms.’



The report’s publication comes against the background of intense controversy over the Government’s plans to extend the monitoring of all texts, telephone calls, emails and internet traffic in the UK.



Sir David said that proper regulation was essential to ensure public trust in the system.



‘The problem with social media is that it doesn’t really fit the 19th and 20th century structures we have for how you go about regulating these matters,’ he said.



‘After Iraq, we must be sure that if people are engaged in this kind of monitoring, they are doing it for the reasons set out in the authorisation (and that) it has not been politicised.’



A Home Office spokesman said communications data has played a role in every major security service counter-terrorism operation over the past decade and in 95 per cent of all serious organised crime investigations.

