Two U.K. police members have avoided a $1.2M fine for recording the phone calls of over 200,000 citizens without permission.
The U.K. police claim that the policemen were not aware of having the ability to record conversations through their devices.
- The
Information Commissioner's Office has stated that the institution will
change how it reprimands its officials for breaking laws, replacing
monetary fines with other methods, which is why these police officers
will not have to pay any money.
- The ICO claims that the app was downloaded by over 1,015 staff members.
- Police
officers using the app claim that they were unaware that all calls were
being recorded, and interviewees were therefore not informed of the
fact either.
- This fact means that the interviewees had their
privacy rights broken because they did not give consent to having their
personal information recorded.
- The app was meant to be used
only by only a small number of police officers, but Surrey Police and
Sussex Police apparently made the decision to make the app widely
available.
- The ICO, however, claims that it became aware of this situation only in 2020.
