UUNet last week became the first internet service provider (ISP) to fall foul of tough new laws on intercepting emails.

Network News understands that the breach of the controversial Regulation of Investigatory Powers (RIP) Act happened when UUNet, the UK's second largest UK ISP and one of the biggest suppliers of leased lines, dealt with a spam attack.

Engineers clearing more than two million emails called up all the messages and examined the headers to delete the spam. Examining the subject line of the header, however, contravenes the data interception rules specified by the RIP Act which were designed to give users a guarantee of privacy.

The crucial part of the law states that it is an offence to "intentionally and without lawful authority" intercept any communication in the course of its transmission.

Richard Woods, UUNet's public affairs advisor, said the company was unaware that looking at this information without a warrant might be in breach of RIP interception rules, claiming that it constituted a grey area.

He justified the engineers' actions, saying that an ISP is like a post office. He defined the address as part of all the information needed to go through the routers.

However, Woods later admitted that the subject line in the header was not simply part of the address because it could contain a lot more information. "We had to look at the subject line to identify the spam," he said.

But Roger Gaspar, deputy director general of the National Crime Intelligence Service, confirmed that fighting spam by reading emails was classified as interception of communication. "They can probably mount justification for that, but it is still unlawful interception of communication data," he said.

Unless someone specifically complains about their information being accessed, it is unlikely that UUNet will face prosecution.

First published in Network News