Vodafone is to take a stand on privacy by asking British ministers, and the governments of each of the 25 countries in which it operates, for the right to disclose the number of demands it receives for wiretapping and customer data.
In a push back against the use of telecoms networks for mass surveillance, as revealed by the NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, Vodafone is to write to the home secretary, Theresa May, and the justice secretary, Chris Grayling, demanding greater transparency.
"We want all of our customers worldwide to feel they are at liberty to communicate with each other as they see fit. We want our networks to be big and busy withpeople who are confident they can communicate with each other freely; anything that inhibits that is very bad for any commercial operator," said Vodafone's privacy head, Stephen Deadman.
Vodafone says British law currently prevents it from sharing even general information on wiretapping.
Under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (Ripa), discussing the existence of a warrant is punishable by five years in prison.
The company wants
to follow its American counterparts AT&T and
Verizon, and digital groups including Google,
Microsoft and Facebook, in publishing regular
transparency reports.
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/jan/15/vodafone-aims-to-disclose-wiretap-demands