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Part 1
When assessing the necessity and the proportionality of any interception of
communication, those responsible for making the decision and granting the
authority should assess the effect of this interception on third parties by giving
due regard to:
•
Who else besides the subject uses the telephone line and what effect will
interception have on their privacy?
•
Who else lives or works at the address besides the subject and may
receive mail there that may be opened, and what effect will this have on
their privacy?
•
Is an e-mail inbox shared, thereby giving rise to a risk that other people
not connected with the investigation may have his or her right to privacy
breached?
Communications between a suspect and his or her lawyer are confidential.
This will be discussed further in section 3.4.3 of this manual.
The right to privacy of third parties has to be carefully considered when using
private companies’ call records. This requires, for instance, the weeding of
seized transcripts used as evidence so that they contain only information
relevant for investigation purposes and do not disclose names of third parties
who have no link with the matter under consideration.
Adhering to safeguards, making assessments and adopting SITs only when
absolutely necessary not only helps to ensure that interference with the
human rights of the subject and others are kept to a minimum, but also has
operational benefits. The interception of telephone calls, in particular, can
be very time consuming, in that verbatim transcripts have to be made of
conversations. Some of these conversations may involve non-standard language and accents that may be difficult for the listener to understand, given
the sometimes erratic nature of telephone and mobile phone connections
and the fact that parties to the conversations being monitored may be from
different regions or countries than those listening. The necessity to monitor
lines for twenty-four hours a day also consumes a great deal of resources
that may be better employed on other tasks. Thus, this is a tactic to be used
with restraint.
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