Andre Yoskowitz
8 Jun 2014 10:32
Vodafone, the world's second largest phone company with over 420 million subscribers, has confirmed that the governments of six nations listen and record customer's phone calls.
Via its 2014 "Disclosure Report," the carrier says six countries within Europe, Africa and Asia are tapping phone calls, similar to what the NSA and GCHQ have been accused of in the U.S. and England. Most governments need warrants issued by judges to tap phone calls, but apparently these countries did not.
For legal reasons, the carrier did not reveal the nations but did say that "in Albania, Egypt, Hungary, India, Malta, Qatar, Romania, South Africa and Turkey it could not disclose any information related to wiretapping or interception."
"In a small number of countries the law dictates that specific agencies and authorities must have direct access to an operator's network, bypassing any form of operational control over lawful interception on the part of the operator," Vodafone said in its report. Vodafone adds that the government agencies of these nations by inserting their own equipment into the network, or diverting data and traffic through their own government systems.
Of all of its operating countries, Vodafone says that Italy made the most requests for communication data, and that Britain and Australia also made hundreds of thousands.
Altogether, they received requests in 29 countries. Vodafone operates mobile operations in 27 countries and has partner carriers in 49 more.
Source:
Reuters