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Interception of communications
It is an offence for any person intentionally, and without lawful authority, to intercept any communication in the course of its transmission through a public telecommunication system and – except in specified circumstances – through a private telecommunication system . This offence is established under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA). So it will be unlawful for a person to intercept, for instance, a telephone call though a landline, a call or text message through a mobile network, an email or message sent though the internet. This offence does not apply to stored communications, however, such as automatically recorded calls or messages on answering machines.
