Gvern li jissemma u mhux gvern li jisma

Published: June 7, 2014 at 11:28am

Vodafone’s report about the pressure it is under for requests for data from state authorities in different countries has really hit the headlines and shocked a lot of people.

I don’t think I’ll be having anything but the most perfunctory conversations on any mobile phone or landline, and I’d say most key members of the press would be sensible to do the same.

As for members of the Opposition and key officials of the Nationalist Party – they would now be insane to say anything that matters over the telephone.

Malta has come up in all the newspaper reports on this subject as being top of the list for requests for metadata, along with Italy. But Italy has the Mafia and massive problems with organised crime and corrupt politicians, which is countered with telephone surveillance. Regular readers of this website will remember a recent report in which our very own Bastjan and Johnny Dalli came up in a telephone conversation recorded between two members of the Neapolitan mafia who were discussing setting up in business in Malta. The conversation was recorded by the Italian police as part of a magisterial inquiry, and the transcript was given in the inquiry report.

We have organized crime in Malta, and how, but nowhere near that scale and besides, under Maltese law, the police cannot tap or listen to telephone conversations without a warrant from a judge. In the absence of that warrant, the recordings and the information gleaned from them are not admissible as evidence in court.

Vodafone has given the number of requests it has received from Malta for information last year. What the Opposition needs to do now is challenge Manuel Mallia to say how many warrants for telephone surveillance the police obtained from judges, and see if the numbers match up. And in doing this, we have to remember that Vodafone is just one of the telephone service providers in Malta. There is also Go, which has said nothing.

The Daily Mail puts the figures in context:

Some of the most spied on nations in Vodafone’s network include Malta and Italy, the report revealed.

Last year, Vodafone received 606,000 metadata requests from mobile phones in Italy, more than any other country in which it runs networks.

And in the same period, the firm processed 3,773 requests for metadata in Malta – which has a population of 420,000.




15 Comments Comment

  1. Filssufkahum says:

    I have been with Vodafone since telecell and now considering going to another network. But which network is secure? This is a deadly tool in the hands of the wicked & powerful to shut up the honest & incorruptible citizens.

    [Daphne – There is no point in moving to another network. Vodafone has been honest and released a public statement about the pressure it is under. This does not mean that it is the only service provider under such pressure. It means it is the only one to talk about it. It is obvious that states are not putting pressure only on Vodafone but on all telephony service providers equally. It is just that the others haven’t spoken out.]

    • Rosie says:

      Exactly, it seems that Vodafone is the only provider which has been open about the situation it has been placed in.

    • bob-a-job says:

      ‘wiretapping is legally difficult for the government: it must obtain a hard-to-get intercept order or “super-warrant” from a court, subject to strict oversight and variety of strong privacy protections. However, wiretapping is typically very technically easy for the government.’

      That’s in the USA.

      Now that’s something for the newspapers to take up.

      How about getting our representatives to demand that only a hard-to-get intercept order or ‘super-warrant’ will do and not just an easily obtainable ‘normal’ warrant.

      That’s an idea for Simon Busuttil to work on.

  2. curious says:

    “And in the same period, the firm processed 3,773 requests for metadata in Malta – which has a population of 420,000.”

    If only babies used phones.

    • hmm says:

      Lest we forget the 3773 requests made, are not equivalent to 3773 numbers but account to far many more numbers. These are requests not telephone numbers monitored. So in truth the number of phones monitored by just one supplier that is Vodafone are actually much more. Add tothese melita, and go and the phones monitored must be much higher. The interesting matter is whether red touch phones are monitored or not. Furthermore it would be interesting to know the duration of monitoring as well as the total statistics regarding mobile telephony and what percentage of these are adults versus children

  3. Tabatha White says:

    What’s another blurry line between the two words?

    When another 2 euro cents will be enough to keep the Malta Taghna lot quiet and happy.

    How tragic.

  4. I wonder says:

    I don’t know the process of obtaining a warrant from a judge. But perhaps there is a judge who is willing to issue the warrant. Perhaps that explains why whatever their behaviour certain judges need to remain judges. All speculation of course.

  5. canon says:

    Dan il-gvern ghandek tibza minnhu fil-vera sens tal-kelma:

    gvern li jigdeb
    gvern li jahbi
    gvern li jabbuza mit-telefonati li tghamel
    gvern li jabbuza mill-protezzjoni tad-data tieghek.

    • Cikku says:

      Ġiet f’idejja Paġna ‘minn gazzetta li kont erfajt… The Times tas-16 ta’ Ottubru 1984. Dak inhar Democrat kien kiteb dan l-artiklu bl-isem ta’ Why I am against communism” li qed inwassal għall-kummenti tagħhkom u biex tixtarruh u taraw jekk erġajnix mexjin (jekk mhux diġa bdejna) għal dawn is-sitwazzjonijiet. Sintendi l-artiklu qiegħed bl-Ingliż.

      I came across a book called “Why I am against Communism ” by Dr Fred. C. Schwarz. What struck me most and of particular interestis one paragraph about monopoly which I here quote:
      “The communist Party rules by establishing and maintaining a total monopoly over every aspect of life. This monopoly is political, judicial, economic, educational and cultural. The Communist Party formulates all the laws and administers them after they have been passed.
      It controls the army and the police force. It designs the economic plan of the nation and controls manufacturing distribution, banking and trade so that it monopolizes employment. It selects and trains all teachers, prepares the curriculum for all schools and decides which schools students shall attend. It organizes and controls the lavour unions, he news media, artictic and sporting activity. Even religion is subject to the direction of a commissar.
      “The Communists are well aware of the power over the individual worker that monopoly brings. They have attacked capitalism viciously because it allegedly generates monopolistic firms which exercise excessive control over their workers. However, there is no monopoly in a capitalist societ remotely comparable to the monopoly the Communist Party exercises in a ‘Socialist society.” ” Because of its monopoly , the communist Party exercises complete power over the life of every citizen. This power is literally that of life and death. The citizen can be arrested and imprisoned with or withourt trial; he can be dismissed from his job and made unemployable so that he starves; he can be forbidden to live where he chooses within the country and travel throughout the country as he wishes; he cannot leave the country without permission which is rarely given; he is restricted in what he reads, hears and says so that his mind is deformed through lack of information and his personality through suppressed convictions.
      “Even thought it may not always exercise these powers fully the Communist monopoly dictatorship has them, and it can implement them when he chooses. A simple definition of the Communist dictatorship is “a society in which the Communist Party can and it will, render any individual unemployed and thereby causes that individual to starve.” It is obvious that the citizen in such a society possesses no basic rights. The communist Party owns his body and soul and can dispose of him as at will.
      “The only freedom he has is to obey and submit. His only deliverance is in flight.”
      The Communist main enemy is the Church, hence the Roman Catholic religion.”

      Tgħid ‘l hemm mexjin? Il-Bambin jilliberana.

  6. Joe azzopardi says:

    Re-reading George Orwell’s 1984 and it still looks relevant 30 years later

  7. rjc says:

    One thing not being mentioned here is that apart from listening or recording conversations, a mobile phone also provides a very accurate position of where it is being used. It makes it very easy to track one’s movements.

  8. dorian says:

    On a smartphone, download the app Telegram and it’s 100% safe from anybody.

  9. Delta says:

    Article 6 of the Security Services Act empowers the MiINISTER responsible for the MSS to issue a warrant authorising legal interception.

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