www.theregister.com ·
Londons Police Asked Big Tech for Comms Data Over 700000 Times Last Year
Topic context
This topic has been covered 412580 times in the last 30 days across our monitored publishers.
The full article is on the original publisher site. This page only shows the headline and a very short excerpt.
AI insight
AI-generatedThe article reports a significant increase in UK police requests for communications data from tech companies, particularly targeting MVNO LycaMobile and privacy-focused services like Proton. This creates a regulatory and compliance cost channel for telecom and tech firms operating in the UK, potentially affecting their operational costs and user trust. The impact is UK-specific, with implications for companies like Vodafone, LycaMobile, Proton, and Signal. The commercial mechanism is weak as it primarily involves regulatory compliance rather than direct price or supply effects.
Signals our AI researcher identified
Extracted by our AI model from this article and related public sources — not direct quotes from the publisher.
- Met Police made over 700,000 requests for communications data from tech companies in 2025.
- Requests to MVNO LycaMobile surged nearly 500% from 15,702 to 93,527.
- Police obtained data from Proton's privacy-focused services 139 times since 2024.
- Signal reported sharing data only once, contradicting police claims.
- New powers under the Border Security, Asylum, and Immigration Act 2025 allow immigration enforcement officers to search undocumented migrants for data.
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Sector impact at a glance
- CYBERSECURITYmid
- GLOBAL_TECHmid
- TELECOM_MEDIAmid
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