Security News > 2023 > April > Brit cops rapped over app that recorded 200k phone calls

Several police forces in Britain are being put on the naughty step by the UK's data watchdog for using a calling app that recorded hundreds of thousands of phone conversations and illegally retained that data.

The Information Commissioner's Office said today it was made aware in June 2020 that Surrey Police and Sussex Police were given access to the Another Call Recorder app that recorded all incoming and outgoing conversations.

The ICO thinks it probable that the app captured a range of personal information during these calls, and the "Processing of some of this data was unfair and unlawful. The police officers were themselves unaware that calls would be recorded and so were the people on the other end of the line," the watchdog added.

In a joint statement, Surrey Police and Sussex Police said the app was meant to be used by a small number of specialist hostage negotiators to support kidnap and crisis negotiations.

They said the app was used on 432 phones and 1,024 officers downloaded the app, according to their findings.

"There was no means at that time of restricting use of the app and, unintentionally, it was enabled for all staff to download without appropriate guidance in place. When enabled, the app records and stores all phone calls made in the mobile device."

News URL

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/04/18/ico_surrey_sussex_police/