By Zack Whittaker
Summary: London’s police service can not only track and trace your mobile phone, but remotely shut it down and intercept phone calls and text messages, it has emerged.
London’s Metropolitan Police, headquartered at Scotland Yard, has been accused by privacy campaigners of violating citizens’ privacy and civil liberties, after it was discovered that the police service had acquired military-grade surveillance equipment to track and if necessary, disable mobile phones.
London’s police service has been under increased pressure to bolster its provisions post the London riots during the summer, in the run up to the Olympic games next year. Yet, privacy campaigners are concerned with the police service becoming ‘another MI5′.
First uncovered by The Guardian, the Metropolitan Police is operating covert mobile phone surveillance and tracking technology, which can not only masquerade as a legitimate cell network, but can also remotely shut down phones, and intercept the incoming and outgoing communications of phones over a blanket radius. (more on zdnet.com)
