George Orwell is rolling over - Metropolitan Police uses secret surveillance technology to follow suspects (and innocent folks)...

© RIA Novosti / Alexey Nikolsky

Metropolitan Police uses secret surveillance technology to follow suspects and gather data from their mobile phones, reports. The gathering is done to all active mobiles within a certain range - including those belonging to innocent people.

The technology, called an IMSI catcher, also allows for phone calls to be intercepted and listened to. Text messages and emails can also be collected and read. Additionally, it can block phone signals in a specific area.

But it's not just the suspect's phone which is taken under control by the technology; all active mobile phones in the area are. Sources in the Metropolitan Police told that the data of innocent people may also be stored in archives.

the source said.

The Metropolitan Police are not the only organization which uses the technology. reports that the National Crime Agency (NCA) and other larger police forces also do so. These units do not need judicial or governmental permission, as an officer of high rank can authorize it for preventing or detecting serious crime.

Journalists and several organizations have already expressed their concern.

Privacy International advocacy officer Matthew Rice said.

Neither Scotland Yard nor NCA confirmed nor denied the use of the technology, the report says.

The IMSI (International Mobile Subscriber Identity) catcher is a fake mobile tower which acts between the target mobile phone and the service provider's real towers. The IMSI catcher logs the IMSI numbers of all the mobile stations in the area, as they attempt to attach to the IMSI catcher. After that, the operator can get all necessary data.

Earlier this year, it was revealed that British secret services have been illegally intercepting millions of communications.