Ten rights groups are calling for reform of the way victims of crime in the UK – especially victims of sexual assault – are forced to hand over all their phone data.
In April this year, new forms called Digital Processing Notices were rolled out across police forces in England and Wales. These notify victims that the police are likely to download ‘almost all of the data you could see if you were to turn on the device and browse through it’.
This can include texts, encrypted WhatsApp messages or other messaging apps, call logs, contacts, emails, photos, videos, internet browsing history, notes, maps and GPS, location information and more.
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Refusal to comply, victims are told, means that ‘allegations may not be investigated or prosecuted’. Meanwhile, they’re warned, if evidence is found on their phones relating to other criminal offences, they will be investigated.
This, says Big Brother Watch, has caused victims to fear that they could be investigated for minor offences, or that they might incriminate their friends or family by handing over their phones to the police.
“These digital strip searches are a gross invasion of victims’ privacy and an obstruction of justice. Our phones contain emails, social media accounts, app data, photos, browsing history and so much more,” says Big Brother Watch director Silkie Carlo.
“These phone downloads can even exceed the information gathered from a police property raid.”
In one case, the Crown Prosecution Service demanded access to the phone of a 12-year-old victim of rape – despite the perpetrator admitting the offence. The victim’s case was delayed for months while his personal mobile phone data was examined.
In another, a woman’s mobile phone records were used to show that she had called unknown numbers after being raped, and it was suggested that the rape was actually consensual. She stated that the calls were to specialist support helplines, but it was implied that the time between the rape and the calls showed that she wasn’t deeply affected.
The groups’ report has won the support of Dame Vera Baird, victims’ commissioner for England and Wales.
“Big Brother Watch has done a detailed analysis. It confirms that uniquely in rape cases more demands for the content of digital devices are made of complainants than can lawfully be made of defendants,” she says.
“As Victims’ Commissioner, I will work to get dignity and respect for victims which means an end to this incomprehensible intrusion into their privacy.”
The report will be launched in parliament this evening. Campaigners say victims’ consent to access their personal records should be freely given, specific and limited to the information relevant to the crime – not blanket.
In addition, they say, digital evidence technology should be brought up to date so police can collect targeted pieces of evidence from phones, rather than entire digital copies. Meanwhile, AI, they say, shouldn’t be used for ‘fishing expeditions’.
“Many women are fearful of reporting rape for a variety of reasons including the fear they will be disbelieved or judged. The requirement to hand over the whole of their data history is an additional disincentive to a massively under prosecuted crime,” says Harriet Wistrich, director of the Centre for Women’s Justice.
“We are preparing a legal action on the basis these consent forms are unlawful, as they discriminate against women – who are the vast majority of rape victims – as well as a violation of the right to privacy, and of data protection principles.”
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